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CHINA AND THE POWERS 



CHINA 
AND THE POWERS 

Chapters in the History of Chinese 
Intercourse with Western Nations 

By 
ALLEYNE IRELAND, F.R.G.S. 

special Commissioner of the Colonial Commission of the University of Chicago 
Author of ^^ Tropical Colonisation,^' '■'The Anglo-Boer Conflict,'"' etc. 




Boston 

Privately Printed for 

Laurens Maynard 
1902 



Copyright^ I go 2^ by 
Alleyne Ireland 



40 



X^ 



THE LIBRAfiY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copiew Received 

JUL. tl 1902 

COPVBIOHT ENTRV 

C\.aS8 ft XXo. No. 
3 S L<- c| § 
COPY B. 



/Vf5i of Geo, H. Ellis Co. 
Boston, U.S.J. 



PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD. 

The chapters contained in this volume were origi- 
nally written to form part of a larger work, which, 
as originally projected by Mr. Ireland, was to have 
contained chapters on ChincLS relations with France, 
Germany, and Japan, together with a concluding 
study of the " Conflicting Interests and Ambitions 
of the Great Powers in Chinar Owing to ill-health, 
Mr. Ireland was compelled to abandon this work; 
and other duties have now rendered its completion, 
as originally planned, impossible. 

As the finished portion of the work is complete in 
itself, and as the statistical appendices contain a 
thorough analysis of Chinese trade during twenty 
years, it is believed that its value to students is 
sufficient to justify its publication. 

One hundred and fifty copies are therefore being 
printed for private sale, after which printing the 
plates will be destroyed. 

June 15, 1902. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Chinese Problem 3 

II. Early Western Intercourse with China, 

B.C. looo-A.D. 1600 22 

III. The United States and China 4° 

IV, England and China 70 

V. Russia and China 109 

APPENDICES. 

Comparative Tables, showing an Analysis of Chinese Trade 
from 1880 to i8gg, inclusive. 

I. Value of Imports into China 134 

II. Value of Exports from China 135 

III, Imports into China: Proportion supplied by the 

Principal Foreign Countries 136 

IV. Exports from China : Proportion taken by the 

Principal Foreign Countries 137 

V. Chinese Shipping: Tonnage of Vessels entered 

and cleared 138, 139 

VI. Shipping of Chinese Ports : Percentage of Total 

Tonnage carried under each Flag . . . . 140 



PREFACE. 

There exists among writers on Chinese affairs a 
wide divergence of views as to the present importance 
and future destiny of the Chinese people. 

Historians have expressed opinions of every shade 
between the two extremes of regarding China as a 
nation which, owing to its peculiar organisation, 
m-ust eventually be absorbed into the political systems 
of the European Powers, and the prophetic vision of 
China as the dom^inating world-influence of future 
centuries. 

Economists have sought to show, on the one hand, 
that the m^agnificent labour supply of China, if con- 
trolled and directed by the principles of Western in- 
dustrialism,, would so reduce the cost of production 
in every direction as to effect a saving to the world 
comparable 07ily to that which followed the general 
adoption of steam-driven machinery, while, on the 
other hand, it is confidently asserted that, as the 
introduction of Western methods into China could 
not be expected to raise the sta7tdard of living among 
the Chinese people to any considerable extent, the en^ 
trance of the vast population of the Middle Kingdom 
into free industrial competition with the rest of the 
world could only have the effect of lowering the 
standard of living among the labouring people of 
Europe and America. 

The object of the present volume was to place before 
the public in a com^pact form, the essential facts in 
regard to the political and com,mercial relationship 



X Preface 

existing between China and the Powers^ ajtd to ex- 
hibit in narrative form, unhampered by a m.ass of 
unnecessary details^ the course of events which has 
taken China out of her former position of isolation, 
and set her down, a great problem, if not a serious 
m.enace, in the midst of the Wester^z nations. 

In regard to the arrangem^ent of the volume I had 
thought it best to devote a prelim,i7iary chapter to the 
exam,ination of the various aspects of China as a 
problem, calling for solution at the hands of the 
Powers. This will enable the reader to appreciate 
the urgent importance of the Chinese question, and 
may encourage him, to peruse the historical chapters 
which follow. 

Chapters II. to V., inclusive, relate to matters of 
fact, not of opinion, and thus require no justification. 
The interruption of the work at this point, as ex- 
plained in the publisher s foreword , relieves me from, 
the necessity of offering any apology for the personal 
views which would necessarily have been reflected in 
the concluding chapter as originally planned. 

Having been unable to complete the work in the 
manner in which I U7idertook it, I have only con- 
sented, under special solicitation, to its private publi- 
cation in a limited edition, in order that the historical 
matter and statistical tables which it contains might 
be accessible. 

Alleyne Ireland. 

Boston, 1902. 



CHINA AND THE POWERS 

Chapters in the History of Chinese 
Intercourse with Western Nations 



Chapter I. 
THE CHINESE PROBLEM. 

The present wide-spread interest in China is due 
to sensational causes ; but these causes, deplorable 
as they are in themselves, may yet serve the useful 
purpose of so fixing public attention on the Celes- 
tial Empire as to insure a solution, by one method 
or another, of the great and urgent problem which 
the future progress of China presents to the 
world. 

It is not my present purpose to examine the 
prospects of China's political future in the light of 
the conflicting ambitions of the Great Powers. 
Such an inquiry, however exhaustive in its nature, 
would only lead me back to the point from which 
I wish to start; namely, the consideration of the 
Chinese people as a factor in human progress. 
This method of approach appears to possess some 
considerable advantage over the other, from the 
fact that, whereas the policy of the Great Powers 
towards China must be finally limited and deter- 
mined by the attitude of China as a nation, — an 
uncertain quantity, only to be measured in each 
instance after the event, — the social and industrial 
development of the Chinese as a people could only 
be to some extent advanced or retarded in point of 
time by any conceivable political change effected 
by the intrusion of the Great Powers. 

In this chapter on " The Chinese Problem," I 
limit myself to an examination of the economic 



4 China and the Powers 

aspect for a reason which appears to me sufficient ; 
namely, that at the present day the political action 
of nations is determined almost entirely by eco- 
nomic considerations. How true this is in regard 
to China, how true it has been during the past 
three centuries, will appear in the subsequent 
chapters. 

If the Chinese were a people like the Russians, 
the Germans, or the French, we (I address chiefly 
American and British readers) would observe any 
marked increase in their industrial activity or in 
their national aggressiveness with some misgivings, 
possibly, but certainly without any feeling that our 
own national existence, either social or economic, 
was seriously threatened by what we should be com- 
pelled to regard as a progressive movement in a 
fellow-nation. We should flatter ourselves that 
what a Russian or a German or a Frenchman 
could do, an American or an Englishman could 
do at least as well. 

But it is precisely because the Chinaman differs 
from all other men that the prospect of a radical 
change in the Chinese life and policy is viewed by 
many intelligent observers with an interest not un- 
mixed with alarm. 

Although I do not share the view held by some, 
that China is destined to become the greatest active 
power in the world, my lack of acquiescence is 
measured rather by my hope that the concerted ac- 
tion of the Great Powers will limit the expansion 
of China to those regions in the tropics where she 



The Chinese Proble 



m 



would have all white races at a disadvantage, than 
by any belief that the Chinaman, if left to himself, 
is incapable of developing the necessary amount of 
self-assertion. 

If we supplement an estimate of the dynamic 
potentiality of the Chinese people by an examina- 
tion of some of the natural and artificial forces 
which are likely to extend or to limit the area of 
Chinese activity, we may form some idea of the 
problem which would be created by the wholesale 
adoption by the Chinese of those material aids to 
progress which we have so persistently endeavoured 
to thrust upon their unwilling attention. 

China, with her dependencies, covers an area of 
4,460,000 square miles, and has a population of 
about 400,000,000. In other words, her people rep- 
resent one-fourth of the population of the globe, 
spread over about one-twelfth of its land surface. 
The land varies in fertility and in mineral resources 
in the different Provinces ; but it is certain that 
the country contains the largest coal and iron de- 
posits within the territory of any single nation. 
Von Richtofen, the German geologist, estimates 
that the single Province of Shansi could supply the 
whole world's requirements in coal and iron, at the 
present rate of consumption, for three thousand 
years ; and the productiveness of the soil is at least 
equal to that of any equal area in the world. 

Up to the present time the vast resources of the 
Chinese Empire, with millions of hands on the spot 
to develop them, have been practically closed to the 



6 China and the Powers 

world. The insignificance of the export trade of 
China, when compared with that of other nations, will 
be seen from the following rough calculations : — 

Exports of Domestic Produce in 1897. 

Per Capita. 

China $120,000,000 $0.30 

United Kingdom 1,170,000,000 29.25 

France 719,000,000 18.43 

Germany 890,000,000 17. 11 

United States 1,032,000,000 14.74 

From these figures it is seen that the average 
value of the annual exports per capita from the 
four Western nations is ^19.88 as compared with 
30 cents per capita from China. If we give China 
the benefit of a probable overestimate of population 
and of a possible underestimate of exports, and if 
we place the exports at 40 cents per capita, — a 
liberal allowance, — we observe that at the present 
time it takes fifty Chinamen to place on the world's 
market an amount of produce equal to that dis- 
tributed by one American or European. 

It would of course be mere guess-work to try to 
estimate the exact effect which the general introduc- 
tion of machinery, of improved agricultural methods, 
and of adequate transportation facilities, would have 
upon the export returns of that country ; but within 
certain limits such a speculation may be sufficiently 
near the truth as to afford a basis for some general 
deductions. 

Let us suppose, then, that during the next ten 



The Chinese Problem 7 

years China adopts Western methods to an extent 
which would still leave one white man equal to five 
Chinamen in productive efficiency. The result 
would be, basing our calculation on the figures 
given above, that China's exports would amount to 
not less than ^1,600,000,000, — a sum equal to the 
total combined value of domestic exports from 
Germany and France in 1897, and representing 
seventy-five per cent, of the total exports from the 
United States and the United Kingdom together. 

It may be suggested that China would find a dif- 
ficulty in securing markets for such a great quan- 
tity of produce, because in some countries a strong 
prejudice exists against Chinese goods ; and it might 
be expected that many countries would erect formi- 
dable tariffs against Chinese manufactures. If we 
admit that these factors would play some part in 
determining the quantity and direction of Chinese 
exports, and that the prejudice against Chinese 
goods would probably operate to keep down a Chi- 
nese export trade to the United States,' to Austral- 
asia and Canada, and, to a lesser extent, to France 
and Germany, the fact must not be overlooked that 
a Chinaman can outwork and underlive any other 
worker in the world, and that this circumstance 
would enable him to appeal, even in countries most 

' The trade of the United States with China is examined at length in 
the chapter on " The Conflicting Interests and Ambitions of the Powers in 
China " ; but it may be mentioned here, as an evidence of China's export- 
ing capacity, that since 1821 China has sold the United States more than 
^600,000,000 worth of merchandise in excess of what she has purchased 
from the United States. 



8 China and the Powers 

hostile to him, to the natural preference of the 
majority of people for the cheaper product. 

But the question of Chinese trade development 
is not primarily one of competition with the white 
man in his home markets, but of a rivalry with 
Europe, America, and Australasia in the tropical 
and sub-tropical markets. The importance of this 
fact is made more apparent if we consider the gen- 
eral prospects of trade development in the future. 
A moment's reflection serves to satisfy us that 
whatever increase may be looked for in the trade of 
the European countries, of North America, and of 
non-tropical Australasia, a vastly greater propor- 
tional development may be expected in the trade of 
the tropical and sub-tropical countries. The white 
man at home has reached such a high degree of ef- 
ficiency as a producer and as a consumer that it 
cannot be foreseen that the rate of progress to be 
observed during the past century will be main- 
tained during the century upon which we have just 
entered. The people of the tropics, on the other 
hand, are still in a very low stage of productive effi- 
ciency ; and their value as consumers is proportion- 
ately small. I have shown elsewhere ' that in the 
British Empire the productive efficiency of the 
tropical as compared with the non-tropical man is 
as I to 23, and that the value of the former as a 
consumer is as i to 17 compared with the value 
of the latter. It is certain, moreover, that in the 
tropics outside the British Empire — under less effi- 

' Tropical Colonisation, pp. no, in. 



The Chinese Problem 9 

cient forms of government, and with less protection 
for the products of industry — the economic value 
of the tropical man is even less than this. 

Concisely, the formula which I would deduce 
from the above facts is this : that the difference 
between actual and normally potential economic 
efficiency is so much greater in the tropical man 
than in the non-tropical man that it is reasonable 
to anticipate that the trade of the former could be 
doubled in the time which would be required to 
raise the trade of the latter by thirty per cent. 

Now, even if we omit from our calculations the 
possibility (which will be examined later) of large 
portions of the tropics and of the sub-tropics be- 
coming preponderatingly Chinese in the composi- 
tion of their population, it is clear that in these 
markets we shall be compelled to enter into an 
open rivalry with Chinese products. The areas in 
which the competition of a vitalised Chinese trade 
would be most likely to affect American and Euro- 
pean exports are these — and it should be noted 
that in each of these countries the Chinaman could 
settle and thrive, and that in some of them he has 
already done so, whilst in most of them the white 
man must always remain a temporary resident, — 
India, Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, the Straits Settle- 
ments, Borneo, New Guinea, the Pacific islands, 
tropical Africa, Mauritius, Brazil, Peru, Chile, the 
Central American republics, Ecuador, Bolivia, and 
Venezuela. 

The commercial problem created by the prospect 



lo China and the Powers 

of an economic awakening of China may be said to 
consist in its simplest form of the possible exclusion 
of the white races from participation in the ad- 
vantages which would follow a great increase in the 
economic efficiency of the tropical and of the sub- 
tropical peoples. 

Up to this point, we have, however, only consid- 
ered the effect which a simple economic develop- 
ment of China, unaccompanied by other great 
changes in the national life and policy, would have 
upon the commercial prospects of the white nationSo 
If we now introduce a new factor, — namely, a pos- 
sible change in the social economy or habit of the 
Chinese people, — we find that the commercial prob- 
lem becomes greatly complicated. 

It is a curious fact that, notwithstanding the gen- 
eral spread of education, the vast majority of people 
appear to have but a slight knowledge of the geog- 
raphy of the earth. For instance, my own expe- 
rience has been that not more than one person out 
of five amongst educated people to whom I have 
put the inquiry has known that Liverpool is to the 
east of Edinburgh, that Calcutta is within a few 
miles of being in the north temperate zone, and 
that Glasgow is in the same latitude as Southern 
Alaska. I refer to this because I imagine that many 
of the popular misconceptions about the physiolog- 
ical and psychological make-up of the Chinaman are 
to be traced to a general impression that the Chi- 
nese are a tropical people. Of course, when we de- 
liberately set out to consider the matter, we realise 



The Chinese Problem n 

at once that only a small part of China lies within 
the tropics, and that a great part of the empire en- 
joys a winter at least as severe as that of New Eng- 
land. But for most people the Chinaman falls into 
the same category as the Filipino, the Bengalee, 
and the Negro ; and only those who have had reason 
to pay some attention to Chinese affairs bear con- 
stantly in mind the fact that the climatic discipline 
of the Chinaman has been that of the Frenchman, 
the German, the Austrian, the American, and the 
Briton. 

It is most important that we should place the 
Chinaman where he belongs geographically, if we 
would avoid falling into the error of supposing that, 
as a factor in future industrial competition and in the 
coming struggle for race supremacy, he is no more 
to be taken into account than the East Indian or 
the Negro. 

Now what manner of man is the Chinaman in 
point of fact ? He has been described over and 
over again by hundreds of writers ; but I select 
three brief descriptions, in order that we may have 
a clear conception of him before we proceed to dis- 
cuss the prospect of his social expansion. " Experi- 
ence proves," says his Excellency, Wu Ting- Fang, 
the Chinese ambassador at Washington, " that the 
Chinese as all-round labourers can easily distance 
all competitors. They are industrious, intelligent, 
and orderly. They can work under conditions that 
would kill a man of less hardy race ; in heat that 
would suit a salamander or in cold that would please 



12 



China and the Powers 



a polar bear, sustaining their energies through 
long hours of unremitting toil with only a few- 
bowls of rice." {North American Review, July, 
1900.) 

" The Chinese are an active, energetic race. 
For ages there has been with them a survival of 
the hardiest. Trained from youth to subsist on 
the most meagre diet, to get along with little sleep, 
and to work patiently for twelve or fourteen hours 
a day, these men scoff at difficulties and exertions 
which would, within a year, weary a European to 
death." (Reinsch, World Politics at the End of the 
Nineteenth Century) 

" A people of hundreds of millions, disciplined 
for thousands of years to the most untiring industry 
and the most self-denying thrift, under conditions 
which would mean worse than death for our work- 
ing masses. A people, in short, quite content to 
strive to the utmost in exchange for the simple 
privilege of life." (Lafcadio Hearn, Atlantic 
Monthly, April, 1896.) 

Such is the man, and, when we consider the area 
of his usefulness, we are confronted with the fact 
that he can live and thrive and multiply in any 
part of the habitable world ; whilst the white man, 
if he is to retain his race characteristics, must 
always remain a bird of passage in almost every 
country lying between 30° N. and 30° S. 

If we reject the possibility of the Chinese ever 
penetrating in force either to the north or to the 
south of the above limit, we are still forced to 



The Chinese Problem 13 

admit that the higher races cannot hope to people 
any of the northern hemisphere outside of Europe, 
North America, and Russian Asia, and that the 
whole of the southern hemisphere, with the excep- 
tion of non-tropical Australasia and possibly of Cape 
Colony and Natal, must derive its future population 
from what we loosely call the lower races. It is 
significant that even in the United States, in Can- 
ada, and in Australasia, countries in which the 
white man has the best possible chance of develop- 
ment and in which he has least to fear from the 
competition of alien races, the dread of the China- 
man has found expression in stringent legislation 
limiting his immigration. 

Fortunately, up to the present time, the Chinese 
people have turned their eyes away from extensive 
emigration, and have thus failed to use efficiently 
their superior physiological adaptability. This 
neglect of opportunity is attributable to a great 
variety of causes, most of which are sufficiently 
well understood by students of sociology. Amongst 
the most obvious may be named the extent and 
natural resources of the home territory, which have 
rendered emigration unnecessary from economic 
motives; the intense conservatism of the Chinese 
people, due, in a great measure, to the fact that 
until within the present century China has been 
absolutely self-sufficient, and has had little inter- 
course with foreign nations; the disincHnation of 
the Chinaman to separate himself from his asso- 
ciates in the innumerable secret societies, the pro- 



14 China and the Powers 

tection of which constitutes for him a sort of vested 
interest; and the impossibility of performing in 
foreign countries the various offices connected with 
the national system of ancestor-worship. 

Notwithstanding these deterrent factors, China- 
men have emigrated in such numbers that, although 
their absence is not felt at home, their presence has 
exerted a powerful influence abroad. Thus in the 
East the Chinaman is found in ever-increasing 
numbers in the Malay Peninsula, in Java, in Siam, 
in Borneo, in New Guinea, in the Philippine 
Islands, in Burmah, in Sumatra, and in Mauritius ; 
whilst he has penetrated as far west as Hawaii, 
Central and South America, and the West Indies. 

There is every reason to suppose that throughout 
the tropics, possibly excepting India, the Chinaman, 
even should he continue to emigrate in no greater 
force than he has done hitherto, will gradually 
supersede all the native races. The reason of this 
is not far to seek. The one thing in which tropical 
countries are deficient is an effective labour supply. 
The economic history of the tropics during the 
past three centuries is largely a narrative of the 
efforts made by the land-owners to secure labour for 
the development of their properties. The autoch- 
thonous races were utilised until they disappeared 
under the strain of steady and severe toil. Then 
slavery was tried and discarded, and there followed 
various systems of imported contract labour. We 
find that the labour supply of the tropics subse- 
quently to the abolition of slavery has consisted of 



The Chinese Problem 15 

free Negroes, for the most part quite unreliable, and 
of East Indian and Chinese imported contract 
labourers. These imported contract labourers, 
either East Indians or Chinese, were introduced, 
and in most instances are still being introduced, into 
Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, St. Lucia, Guada- 
loupe, British, Dutch, and French Guiana, Cuba, 
Peru, Hawaii, the Fiji Islands, Natal, Mauritius, the 
Straits Settlements, Java and Queensland; and a 
great number of unindentured Chinese have gone 
to the Philippine Islands. 

As there is no possibility of white labour being 
utilised in most parts of the tropics, the choice lies 
between the Chinaman, the Negro, and the East 
Indian. But the Chinaman is under all circum- 
stances a better labourer than either of the others ; 
for he has infinitely more industry than the former, 
and infinitely more strength and staying power than 
the latter. So great is his superiority that I am 
satisfied from my own observation that the tropical 
planter would prefer a good supply of unindentured 
Chinamen even to East Indians bound by contract. 

I have not been able to secure any reliable statis- 
tics exhibiting the effect which Chinese imported 
contract labour has had upon the population of the 
countries employing it; but the following figures 
relating to the population of British Guiana show, 
in a striking manner, the effect of East Indian 
immigration. And, if we accept these figures as 
affording a guide to the possible results of even a 
moderate Chinese saturation of the tropics, we shall 
be certainly making an underestimate. 



i6 China and the Powers 

Composition of Population of British Guiana. 

Census of Census of Census of Estimate for 
1831 1861 1891 1901 

White . . . 3-22% 7-77% 6.18% 6.00% 

Black . . . 96.78^ 75-48% 53-45% 44-87% 

East Indian . 00.00% 14-98% 38.98% 47-i3% 

Others . . . 00.00% i.77% i-39% 2.00% 

100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 

In the above figures aboriginal Indians, of whom 
there are about 10,000, are not taken into account; 
and mixed races are counted as black, thus giving 
the black a liberal estimate. 

It is seen that the whites scarcely hold their own, 
notwithstanding the fact that many thousands, 
chiefly Portuguese, have been imported as labour- 
ers. The blacks, on the other hand, have fallen in 
number from 96.78% to 44.87% of the population, 
whilst the East Indians have increased in forty 
years from 14.98% to 47.13%. 

If we consider the peculiar character of the 
Chinese people, it cannot be doubted that they will 
have a more radical influence on the population of 
the tropical countries to which they emigrate than 
that exerted by the East Indians ; and, bearing this 
in mind, we see that the prospect of the tropical 
regions becoming Chinese, socially at least, is not 
unreasonable. 

Still, leaving out of the question a political 
expansion of China, it may be profitable to inquire 
whether there is any reasonable likelihood that the 



The Chinese Problem 17 

well-known aversion of the Chinese to emigrate 
might be increased to such an extent as to operate 
as a complete check ; in other words, whether we 
could deprive the Chinese of the motives which 
impel the emigration of the small number who 
normally quit the country each year. 

In order to determine this, we must inquire into 
the causes which lie at the back of Chinese emigra- 
tion. Broadly speaking, Chinese emigrants may be 
divided into four classes : — 

(i) Criminals escaping from justice. 

(2) Those who are immediately threatened with 
persecution from the high officials of the Southern 
Provinces or who have already suffered such perse- 
cution. 

(3) Those whose friends or relatives have emi- 
grated, and have carried or sent back the news of 
the protection for the fruits of industry which is to 
be found in most countries governed by white men. 

(4) Those who are influenced by the pictures of 
the prosperity and freedom of Christian countries 
which the missionaries paint for their following. 

It is thus seen that, if the Chinese government 
were conducted on the principles which guide 
Western nations, if, in short, a vigorous reform 
movement were successfully carried out, the motives 
for emigration would no longer be strong enough 
to overcome the Chinaman's preference for staying 
at home; and he would then remain in China, 
and worship the bones of his ancestors, at least 
until, perhaps a century hence, the population 
began to press on the means of subsistence. 



i8 China and the Powers 

When emigration became an economic necessity, 
China might, and probably would, expand socially 
without pressing on over-sea territory. A glance 
at the map shows that the natural outlet for Chinese 
expansion is in Thibet, Burmah, Cochin-China, and 
Siam ; for, although Russia may press on China from 
the north, no formidable competitor exists to the 
south, where France is helpless in Indo-China, 
where Siam could not, if it would, prevent an influx 
of Chinese, and where England, in Burmah and in 
the Malay Peninsula is prepared to accept the 
Chinaman as an immigrant. 

Under the foregoing conditions, it is clear that 
the Chinese saturation of the tropics may be con- 
ceivably delayed for a considerable period, and that 
the stress of a possible Chinese commercial compe- 
tition would thus be lessened to the extent of saving 
the tropical and sub-tropical markets from becoming 
Chinese in the nature of their requirements, at any 
rate in the very near future. 

Up to this point we have considered the question 
of Chinese race-supremacy in the tropics on the 
supposition that the natural course of events would 
not be interfered with by the adoption of a definite 
policy of expansion by the Chinese government. 
But it is by no means beyond the range of possi- 
bility that China may, at no distant date, embark on 
a policy of territorial expansion. Indeed, there are 
many reasons for supposing that, given the neces- 
sary conditions, China would certainly look for 
an extension of her political influence in new 
directions. 



The Chinese Problem 19 

If those who predict the complete political dis- 
memberment of China are correct in their forecast, 
there will be of course no Chinese national policy 
in the future ; but I think that there is ample rea- 
son to doubt the correctness of this view. 

Two powerful factors combine to insure the 
endurance of China as a political unit : one is the 
hostile attitude of the United States and of Great 
Britain towards any wholesale cutting up of the 
empire ; and the other is that throughout the central 
and southern Provinces the climatic conditions will 
always render impossible a permanent occupation 
by white men. It may indeed be doubted whether 
the United States and Great Britain, although they 
might forbid the permanent occupation of Chinese 
territory by France, Germany, or Italy, would go so 
far as to forcibly oppose the southern extension of 
Russia's Siberian boundary or the acquisition of 
Corea by Japan. But the utmost that is at all 
likely to happen is that Russia should occupy 
Manchuria and Mongolia, and that Japan should 
take possession of the Corean peninsula. 

If this should occur, China would certainly seek 
compensation to the south, where, from climatic 
reasons, no European race could hope successfully 
to resist her advance; and the absorption of 
Cochin-China, and, more remotely, of Siam and 
Southern Thibet, would follow. 

Even if we conceive China as shorn of her north- 
ern Provinces, and for a time checked in her 
southern advance, we still have a great Chinese 



20 



China and the Powers 



nation, at least capable of a definite foreign policy. 
It seems probable that, whatever may be the imme- 
diate issue of the present situation, the China 
which remains intact will develop into a formi- 
dable military and naval power. 

The " Boxer " revolution, which in its origin is a 
patriotic movement, having as its main object the 
achievement of a policy of " China for the Chinese," 
will probably be followed by a great increase in the 
military and naval forces of the empire. With 400,- 
000,000 people to draw from, with the revenue which 
a reformed administration could procure from such 
a population, and with the unlimited natural re- 
sources of the country at her disposal, China could 
easily make herself the dominant power of the Far 
East. 

In this position, what would her policy be ? 
Would she be content to accept the loss of Man- 
churia and Mongolia as an accomplished fact, or 
would she embark on a campaign of reprisal } 

In any event, the industrial development which 
may be expected to follow even a moderate degree 
of internal reform, if accompanied by the adoption 
of Western industrial methods, will soon set China 
at work seeking foreign markets. If these are 
accorded her, she may, in the absence of an aggres- 
sive national policy, look forward to a long period 
of peaceful progress, relieved by an overflow of 
population to the south, unaccompanied by any 
extension of her political influence. But, if she 
finds her goods shut out from Japan, from Russian 



The Chinese Problem 



21 



and French Asia, from the Philippines, and from 
the Dutch East Indies, China may be forced to 
follow the example of Great Britain, and occupy 
large tracts of land, for trade purposes, which other- 
wise she might have been content to see under the 
political control of other nations. 

The prospect of a powerful and united China 
driven through the narrow commercial policy of 
the more civilised Powers into a fight for markets 
is not a pleasant one ; and it is doubtful whether, 
having secured them, she would select rather to 
follow the lead of Great Britain in throwing them 
open to the world or to take a leaf out of the book 
of France, and practically close her colonial ports to 
all foreign merchandise. 

The Chinese problem is serious enough already, 
without the added complications which would follow 
prolonged hostilities; and it is to be hoped that 
the Powers will realise that the best thing to be 
done, after exacting full reparation for the recent 
outrages, is to leave China to develop naturally 
along the lines of least resistance. 



Chapter II. 

EARLY EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE 
WITH CHINA. 

The exact time of the first European intercourse 
with China is still a matter of doubt. If we accept 
" Europe " as a political rather than a geographical 
term, the conjectural period of Chinese intercourse 
with Europe extends from the eighth century before 
Christ to the second century of the Christian era. 

The various conjectures covering this period may 
be briefly summarised. The prophet Isaiah ' in the 
passage which begins, " Thus saith the Lord, In an 
acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of 
salvation have I helped thee," says, " Behold, these 
shall come from far : and, lo, these from the north 
and from the west ; and these from the land of 
Sinim." If, as some writers assert, the land of 
Sinim was China, Isaiah was the first Western 
writer who is known to have mentioned the 
Celestial Empire. 

It is said that after the dispersion of the Jews, 
742 B.C., wandering companies of the Ten Tribes 
found their way to China. In support of this view, 
it is pointed out that a remarkable similarity exists 
between many Chinese customs and ceremonies 
and those of the Jews; for instance, the feasts of 
the new moons, the number of the civil courts, the 

* Isaiah, xlix. 8-12. See 77^1? Land of Sinim, by Walter N. Lowrie, 2d 
edition (Philadelphia, 1850), and Bibliotheca Sinica, by Henri Cordier (Paris, 
1885), vol. ii. p. 876. 



Early Intercourse 23 

principle of a life for a life, the patriarchal form of 
government, tithes, night-watches, eating sacrificed 
offerings and making merry, and the use of phylac- 
teries. The Jewish high priest wore eight gar- 
ments and a girdle, could not marry a widow or a 
divorced woman, entered into the Sanctum Sancto- 
rum once a year, was priest and law-giver, and 
could alone pray for the people, — all characteristics 
of the Chinese as well as of the Jewish ceremonial. 
Two Arab travellers, Ibn Vahab and Abuzaid, who 
visited China in the ninth century of our era, left 
a narrative of their adventures, in which Jews in 
China are referred to ; and, although this in no way 
directly supports the claim of the earlier Jewish 
migration, the fact is of interest as an evidence of 
the wide dispersion of the Jews at that period, in 
conformity with the decree, " The Lord shall scatter 
thee among all people, from the one end of the 
earth even unto the other." ^ 

The Greek historian Arrian, a disciple of Epic- 
tetus, who flourished in the second century before 
Christ, speaks of the Sinae or Thinae, a people of 
remote Asia, generally identified as the Chinese ; 
and Strabo, the Greek geographer (first century 
before Christ), in his Geography refers to a map 
of Eratosthenes (third century before Christ) on 
which was marked Thina at the eastern extremity 
of the earth, in the latitude of Rhodes, which 

' Deuteronomy, xxviii. 64. For an account of the Jews in China, consult 
Versuch einer Gischichte der Juden in Sina, C. G. von Murr (Halle, 
i8c6) ; Essai sur les Jtiifs de la Chine, I'Abbe A. Sionnet (Paris, 1837) ; and 
The Jews in Chitia, James Finn (London, 1843). 



24 China and the Powers 

would correspond sufficiently with the ancient 
Chinese capital. 

Amongst the early Latin writers, both Horace 
and Virgil (first century before Christ) refer to a 
people called Seres and to the fabrics serica and 
bombycma, the former possibly and the latter cer- 
tainly a silken fabric ; but whether the Seres were 
the Chinese or a people living to the west of China, 
who bought silk from the Chinese and then passed 
it on to Rome, remains undecided. 

Gutzlaff thus sums up the argument for a very 
early Roman intercourse with China: "The inter- 
course between the Chinese and the Roman Em- 
pire must have been carried on at a very early 
period. Whether we recognise the latter under the 
Chinese name Fuh-lin or Ta-tsing, of which the 
Chinese give us a splendid description, without 
pointing out the situation of this empire, matters 
very little. Rome stood in want of silk, silk was 
only brought from China, and therefore some com- 
mercial relation must have existed." ' But this neat 
syllogism really carries us no further in the direc- 
tion of our inquiry ; for, if we admit that Rome had 
silk, and that silk could only come from China, 
the trade might have been carried on for centuries 
by means of middlemen, — the Parthians, for in- 
stance, — without any direct contact of China and 
Rome. 

Coming now to the commencement of the Chris- 

' C. Gutzlaff , A Sketch of Chinese History, Ancient afid Modern, vol. 
ii. p. 102. 



Early Intercourse 25 

tian era, the most interesting conjecture to be 
noted is that Saint Thomas, the Apostle, visited 
China, and built a church at Kambalu (Peking). 
Although there is little evidence of this fact, beyond 
the statement of Assemani,' titular Archbishop of 
Tyre, and librarian of the Vatican Library in the 
early part of the eighteenth century, there is a 
strong presumption in favour of Saint Thomas hav- 
ing gone as far as Madras ; ^ and, if he did not go 
to China, it is quite possible that some of his 
immediate disciples visited that country. 

References to Saint Thomas as the Apostle 
of China are to be found in the Breviary of 
the Church of Malabar and in the Epitome of 
the Syrian Canons ; ^ but the legend rests on 
such slight testimony that it is not worthy of 
credence. 

Probably the earliest direct reference to China 
in Western writings is to be found in Ptolemy's 
Geography {y^wypa^iKr) v<f>rjyr](n<i), written in the 
second century a.d.'^ The first undisputed direct 
intercourse between China and Europe occurred 
during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus 
Aurelius, who sent a number of merchants to 
China by the sea route in i6i, in order to try to 
establish a regular trade in silk. The mission was 

' W. H. Medhurst, CAina : Its State atid Prospects, p. 221. 
^L'Abbe Hue, Christianity in China, vol. i. pp. 17-32 (New York, 
1857). 

^ Gutzlaff , ut supra, vol. ii. pp. 39, 40. 

^S. Wells Williams, The Middle Kingdora, vol. ii. pp. 418, 419 (4th 
edition, New York, 1871). 



26 China and the Powers 

a failure, as the Chinese showed themselves averse 
to dealing with the foreigners.' 

Following the unsuccessful attempt of the Roman 
traders is a period of five centuries, during which 
the only suggestion of European intercourse with 
China — prior to the arrival of the Nestorian mis- 
sionary O-lo-pen — is contained in a passage from 
a Syrian writer, Ebedjesus, who mentions that 
some writers — with whom, however, he did not 
agree — claimed that the metropolitan see of China 
was instituted by Achaeus, Archbishop of Seleucia, 
and head of the orthodox Chaldean Christians 
from 411 to 415. L'Abbe Hue, who was naturally 
anxious to place the first Christian mission to 
China at a date prior to the Nestorian heresy, 
argues that, if the metropolitan see of China was 
instituted by Saliba-Zacha, Patriarch of the Nesto- 
rians from 711 to 728, as is asserted by Ebedjesus, 
it is a proof that the Nestorian O-lo-pen, who 
arrived in China in 650, was not the first Christian 
missionary to visit China ; for the institution of a 
metropolitan see presupposed a flourishing church 
already established, and the time which elapsed 
between the arrival of O-lo-pen and the period of 
Saliba-Zacha (about sixty-five years) would not have 
sufficed to produce in China a state of Christianity 
which would have justified the institution of the 
metropolitan see.^ Thus, according to the Abbe, 

' Sir John Francis Davis, China : A General Description of that Coun- 
try and its Inhabitants, vol. i. p. 3. 

"L'AbW Hue, ut supra, vol. i. pp. 41, 42. 



Early Intercourse 27 

there must have been Christian missionaries in 
China before the time of O-lo-pen. 

Leaving the conjectures of the Abbe Hue, we 
come once more to solid ground, by reference to the 
stone inscriptions of Si-gnan-fou, bearing the date 
781 A.D. This tablet was discovered at Si-gnan- 
fou in the Province of Shan-si in 1625. It was 
erected in 781 a.d., to commemorate the introduc- 
tion of Christianity into China by the Nestorian 
missionary O-lo-pen. The inscription, which was 
written by Lu-Siu-yen, Court Councillor of Kien- 
Chung, ninth emperor of the Tang Dynasty, runs 
in part : " In the reign of the Taitsung, the illus- 
trious and holy enlarger of the Tang Dynasty, there 
was in Judea a man of superior virtue, called 
O-lo-pen, who, guided by the azure clouds, bearing 
the true Scriptures, and observing the laws of the 
winds, made his way through dangers and difficul- 
ties. In the year a.d. 636 he arrived at Chang- 
ngan. The emperor instructed his minister, Duke 
Tang-Hiuenling, to take the imperial sceptre and 
go out to the western suburbs, receive the guest, 
and conduct him to the palace. The Scriptures 
were translated in the library of the palace. The 
emperor, in his private apartments, made inquiry 
regarding the religion ; and, fully satisfied that it 
was correct and true, he gave special commands for 
its promulgation. 

" The document (of promulgation), bearing date 
Chingkwan (the reigning title of Taitsung), 12th 
year, 7th month (August, a.d. 639), runs thus: 



28 China and the Powers 

' Religion is without an invariable name. Saints 
are without any permanent body. In whatever 
region they are, they give instruction, and privately 
succor the living multitudes. O-lo-pen, a man of 
great virtue, belonging to the kingdom of Judea, 
bringing the Scriptures and images from afar, has 
come and presented them at our capital. On 
examining the meaning of his instruction, it is 
found to be pure, mysterious, and separate from 
the world. On observing its origin, it is seen to 
have been instituted as that which is essential to 
mankind. Its language is simple, its reasonings 
are attractive, and to the human race it is bene- 
ficial. As is right, let it be promulgated through- 
out the empire. Let the appropriate Board build 
a Judean church in the Righteous and Holy street 
of the capital, and appoint thereto twenty-one 
priests.' " ' 

The period between the mission of O-lo-pen and 
/ the arrival in China of Marco Polo in 1275 is rather 
bare of records. Beyond the narrative of the Arab 
travellers, Abuzaid and Ibn Vahab, there is little 
to be noted except the Prester John myth,* 
which was extraordinarily persistent during the 
Middle Ages, and which is connected with China 
by the fact that Marco Polo makes several refer- 

' In regard to the inscriptions of Si-gnan-fou see Hue's Christianity in 
China,vo\. i. pp. 44-74, and S. Wells Williams's The Middle Kingdom, vol. 
ii. pp. 290-297 (4th edition, New York, 187 1). 

^ For the story of the Prester John myth consult Colonel Sir Henry 
Yule's article, " Prester John," in vol. xix. of the 9th edition of the Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica, pp. 714-718. 



Early Intercourse 29 

ences to the supposititious monarch/ more particu- 
larly where he describes his descendants as a band 
of Christians occupying a territory called Tenduk, 
north of Peking, — a fact supported by the evidence 
of Friar John of Montecorvino, Archbishop of 
Kambalu (Peking) in the early part of the fourteenth 
century. 

Before passing to a consideration of that period 
of European intercourse with China which com- 
menced with Marco Polo's travels and extended to 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, — a divi- 
sion which is, I think, justified by the fact that 
most writers date the modern intercourse with 
China from 1600, — it may be well to note some 
references to Western countries which are to be 
found in the Chinese records, as we have thus far 
approached the subject from the standpoint of 
Western writers. 

Frequent mention is made in ancient Chinese 
histories of a country called Tha-tsin (variously 
written Tatszn, Tats'm, Ta-tsiiiy Ta4sin by trans- 
lators) and of a country, province, or city, named 
Fuh-lm [Fu-liit). If we could be certain to what 
places these terms were applied by the Chinese, we 
should have some guide by which to check the 
statements of the Western writers whose works have 
been quoted above. Unfortunately, however, schol- 
ars disagree on this point. The whole question 
has been very carefully examined by Hirth,^ and his 

' Marsden's Travels of Marco Polo (London, 1818) pp. 190, 195, and 236. 

^ F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient : Researches into their Ancient 
and Alediceval Relations as presented in Old Chinese Records (Leipzig, 1885). 



30 China and the Powers 

conclusions as well as those of other writers may 
be briefly stated. 

" We are probably safe in assuming that the 
country of Ta-tsin, under its old name Li-kan, was 
not known to the Chinese prior to B.C. 120." ' " Fu- 
lin was merely another name for Ta-ts'in, introduced 
by the Nestorians." "^ " The old sound of the name 
Fu-lin may be safely assumed to have been But-lim 
or But-lam (Bethlehem ?). . . . To see the name of 
the town of Bethlehem as the birthplace of the 
Messiah extended to the country to which it 
belongs is by no means singular, if we consider 
that this was done by religious enthusiasts who 
must have thought it a great privilege to come 
from the Holy Land." ^ "Chinese historians men- 
tion a number of embassies which were sent to the 
emperors of China by all the Asiatic nations, and 
even by the Eastern Roman Empire, which they 
called Ta-thsin, or Greater Chinas "* 

" Much has been written about the origin of that 
name of Tatsin, which became that by which the 

* Hirth, ut supra, pp. 137, 138. ^ Hirth, zit supra, p. 286. 

^ Hirth, ut supra, pp. 289, 290. 

^G. Pauthier, Histoire des Relations Politiques de la Chine avec les 
Puissances Occidentales, p. 17. 

Some writers, notably Lacouperie, do not agree with Pauthier's inter- 
pretation of Ta-thsin as Great China. But I think that Pauthier's view 
receives strong support from the fact that until very recent times the 
Chinese authorities have always in their decrees and proclamations referred 
to all territories outside China as dependencies of the Chinese Empire. 
Even as late as the missions of Lord Amherst and Lord Macartney, ban- 
ners were carried in advance of the embassies on their way to Peking, bear- 
ing the legend " Tribute Bearers." 



Early Intercourse 31 

Roman Empire and especially the Roman Orient 
was known to the Chinese; but no satisfactory 
explanation has been given as yet." ' " Thus To- 
Thsin may mean either the Roman Empire of 
Byzantium or Judea or Persia, or it may be a 
general appellation for all the countries of the 
West Just as at the present day the Chinese 
apply the word Si-yang to the country of all the 
nations of Europe, and even sometimes also to that 
of the Americans." ^ 

Without pretending to any original research in 
this direction, I am inclined to believe, after con- 
sulting such authorities as are available, that the 
Chinese used the term Tha-tsin in a broad sense, to 
indicate generally the far western countries, as in 
England we speak of Greater Britain without refer- 
ence to any particular part of the empire, or as in 
the United States we refer to " the West " without 
special application to any single State. Perhaps a 
better analogy may be drawn between the Chinese 
use of Tha-tsin and our use of " the East " or " the 
Far East." 

As the first reference in the Chinese histories to 
Tha-tsin, under its old name Li-kan, is to be found 
in the Shih-chi, written about B.C. 91, by Ssu-ma 
Ch'ien,^ it is seen that China had no earlier record 
of Europe than Europe had of China. Hirth, in 
his China and the Roman Orient, has translated ex- 

' Terrien de Lacouperie, Western Origin of the Early Chinese Civilisa- 
tion, pp. 242, 243. 

^L'Abbe Hue, ut supra, vol. i. p. 58. ^ jjirth, ut supra, p. 137. 



32 China and the Powers 

tracts from seventeen Chinese histories, ranging in 
date from b.c. 91 to a.d. 1724; but they contain 
Kttle which would be of any interest to the general 
reader. 

In picking up again the thread of our narrative, 
it must be noted that, although Marco Polo and his 
father and uncle were the first Europeans to bring 
back from China any lengthy and detailed account 
of that country, two Franciscan friars, John de 
Piano Carpini and William of Rubruk, had visited 
Tartary, the former being present at the election 
of Kuyuk, grandson of Jenghiz Khan, to the Khan- 
ate of Tartary in 1246 a.d. 

The circumstances under which Marco Polo first 
went to China are briefly told.' 

Marco Polo's father, Nicolo Polo, and his uncle, 
MafHo Polo, were merchants of Venice. They 
embarked together on a trading voyage to Constan- 
tinople about the year 1250. After disposing of 
their merchandise, they decided to make a journey 
to Western Tartary, a country in which at that 
time there was a great demand for costly jewels 
and ornaments. They left Constantinople about 
the year 1254, and after a long journey reached 
the court of Barkah, chief of the Western Tartars. 

' For an account of Marco Polo and his travels see The Travels of 
Marco To/o,hy William Marsden (London, 1818); T/ie Travels of Marco 
Polo, greatly amended and enlarged from valuable early mamiscripts, re- 
cently published by the French Society of Geography, and in Italy by Count 
Baldelli Boni, by Hugh Murray (New York, 1845) ! a^^d The Book of Ser 
Marco Polo, the Venetian, concerning the Kingdoms and Ma7-vels of the East, 
newly traiislated attd edited with Notes, by Colonel Henry Yule (London, 
187 1), 2 vols. 



Early Intercourse 33 

After remaining a year with Barkah, they set out 
on their return journey to Constantinople; but, 
owing to the outbreak of war between Barkah and 
Hulagu, a chief of the Eastern Tartars, the ordi- 
nary route was closed. Accordingly, they pro- 
ceeded by a circuitous route, which led them to the 
city of Bokhara. Here they met a Tartar noble- 
man, who was on his way to the Court of Kubali 
Khan, Emperor of China, as an envoy of Hulagu. 
By this man they were persuaded to give up their 
plans of returning immediately to Europe in favour 
of a visit to Kubali Khan, whose good-will was as- 
sured them. The journey occupied a year ; and on 
their arrival at the Court they were treated with 
great consideration by the Chinese monarch, who, 
after inquiring closely into the affairs of Europe, 
decided to send them back to Italy as ambassadors 
to the Pope. They arrived at Acre in April, 1269. 
The first news which greeted them was the death 
of Pope Clement IV.; and, acting on the advice 
of the Papal Legate, they decided to await the 
election of the new Pope before presenting them- 
selves at Rome. 

They then proceeded to Venice, where Nicolo 
learned that his wife had died in childbirth in 
1254, shortly after his original departure for Con- 
stantinople, leaving him a son, Marco, who was 
now about sixteen years old. This son became the 
famous traveller. 

The election of the new Pope was, however, 
greatly delayed ; and, after waiting two years, the 



34 China and the Powers 

Polos decided to return to China, leaving their 
mission unaccomplished. They started by way of 
Acre, where they secured letters from the Papal 
Delegate. But, before their ship was out of sight 
of land, news was received that the Papal Delegate 
at Acre had himself been elected Pope. The Vene- 
tians were recalled, and furnished with Letters 
Papal. About the end of 1271 the three Polos, 
Nicolo, Maffio, and Marco, commenced their long 
overland journey to China. 

On their arrival at the Court of Kubali Khan 
they were well received ; and the emperor, taking a 
liking to Marco, gave him an appointment in his 
household. He rose subsequently to the enjoy- 
ment of high office, being at one time governor 
of the city of Yang-chow. Whilst in the service 
of Kubali Khan, Polo travelled extensively in East- 
ern Asia. He visited the northern Provinces of 
China, Yunnan, Burmah, Cochin-China, and India, 
The circumstances under which he finally returned 
to Europe, and the curious chances which led to 
the writing of his Travels^ read like the pages of 
a fairy tale. 

After spending seventeen years in China, the 
Polos — for Marco's father and uncle had remained 
with him — began to yearn for their native land; 
and they approached Kubali Khan with a request 
that they might be permitted to return home. 
Kubali, however, was ready to grant them anything 
but this ; and it began to appear as though the Vene- 
tians' were doomed to die in a strange land. About 



Early Intercourse 



35 



this time there arrived from Persia an embassy from 
Arghun, the prince of that country, and a grand- 
nephew of Kubali. The ambassadors brought the 
news of the death of Arghun's wife, who on her 
death-bed had requested that her successor should 
be a princess of the imperial house of China. The 
object of the embassy was to secure such a princess. 
" The application was taken in good part," says 
Marco Polo ; " and, under the direction of his maj- 
esty, choice was made of a damsel aged seventeen, 
extremely handsome and accomplished {moult dele 
dame et avenant)^ whose name was Kogatin, and of 
whom the ambassadors, upon her being shown to 
them, highly approved." 

Having secured the princess, the ambassadors 
set out on their return journey; but, after, trav- 
elling overland for several months, they found their 
way obstructed by the disturbed state of the coun- 
try, and were compelled to return to the capital. 
Here they met Marco Polo, who had just returned 
from a voyage to the East Indies ; and, after con- 
sultation with him, it was decided that the attempt 
should be made to reach Persia by the sea route. 
Accordingly, Kubali Khan fitted out a fleet of 
fourteen great ships, well found, and provisioned 
for two years. When the time of departure ar- 
rived, the ambassadors urged that the Polos should 
be permitted to accompany them, pointing out 
that their great experience of the sea would insure 
the safety of the princess. Kubali Khan finally 
yielded to their entreaties ; and the princess, ac- 



36 China and the Powers 

companied by the ambassadors and the three Polos, 
left the port of Chin Chew,' in the Province of Fuh 
Kien, early in the year 1292. 

On the arrival of the expedition at Ormuz in the 
Persian Gulf, our travellers were informed of the 
death of Kubali Khan, which had taken place in 
1294, and of the death of Arghun, whose bride the 
princess was to have been. They found the coun- 
try in a disturbed state ; but later Ghazan, the son 
of Arghun, established his authority, ascended the 
throne, and married the fair and accompHshed 
Kogatin. 

The Polos resumed their journey, and after many 
adventures reached Venice in 1295. But in Venice 
stories of their death had long been current ; and, 
on presenting themselves in their dwelling, they 
found it occupied by distant relatives, who refused 
to recognise them. Finally, they succeeded in 
establishing their identity. For three years the 
Polos lived quietly in their native city, being 
relieved, by the death of Kubali Khan, from their 
promise to return to China. In 1298, however, 
war broke out between Venice and Genoa ; and at 
the naval engagement of Curzola, fought on the 
6th of September, 1298, Marco Polo, who was 
gentleman-commander {sopracomitd) of one of the 
galleys under the Venetian Admiral Andrea Dan- 
dolo, was taken prisoner, and carried off to Genoa. 
Whilst in prison in that city, he became acquainted 

' There is a conflict of evidence on this point. Some authorities assert 
that the expedition sailed from Hia-muen, the modern Amoy. 



Early Intercourse 37 

with a literary man, a Genoese, named Rustichello 
(written also Rusticiano, Rustighello, Rustigielo), 
who, from frequent conversations with Marco Polo 
and with the assistance of the traveller's notes, 
which had been procured from Venice, wrote out 
The Travels of Marco Polo. 

The Travels contain the first reliable and 
detailed account of China published in Europe. 
We are not concerned here with the substance of 
Marco Polo's narrative, which consists of descrip- 
tions of the Court of Kubali Khan, of the various 
Chinese Provinces, of the different foreign countries 
he visited whilst in the service of the emperor, and 
of an account of the more important internal 
affairs which passed under his notice. 

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
European notices of China are confined almost en- 
tirely to the records of the Roman Catholic mis- 
sionaries,' although there was maintained during 
that period considerable trade between China and 
the great Italian merchants. The names most in- 
timately associated with the spread of Christianity 
in China in those early days are those of John of 
Montecorvino, who arrived in China in 1292 (just 
at the time when the Polos were leaving the coun- 
try), and of Friar Odoric, who spent three years in 
China early in the fourteenth century. 

' For an account of the early Roman Catholic missions in China see 
Lettres edifianies et ctirieuses icrites des Missions etrangires (edition pub- 
lished by J. G. Merrigot, le jeune, Paris, 1 780-1783), 26 volumes, of which 
16-26 relate to China. The standard work in English is Christianity in 
China, Tartary, atid Thibet, by I'Abbe Hue, 2 vols. (New York, 1857). 



38 China and the Powers 

During the sixteenth century the Roman Catho- 
Hc missions in China were very active under the 
guidance of Alessandro Valignani, Michael Roger, 
and more particularly of Matthieu Ricci. 

In the year 15 17 there arrived in China the 
Portuguese Rafael Perestrello, who was the first 
man to navigate to China a vessel under a Euro- 
pean flag. He was shortly followed by Ferdinand 
Andrade, who succeeded in making friends with 
the Chinese authorities at Canton and in laying the 
foundations of what might have become an impor- 
tant commercial settlement. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, Ferdinand's brother Simon, who appears to 
have been a swashbuckler of a most advanced type, 
came out in the following year, and made himself 
so obnoxious to the Chinese authorities that he was 
driven out of the country in 1521. In 1557 the 
Portuguese established themselves at Macao, near 
Canton, which still remains in their possession. 
Macao was at one time a thriving port; but the rise 
of Hongkong killed the Macao trade, and left the 
town with only this claim to notice, — that Camoens, 
the Portuguese poet, probably wrote a great part 
of the Lusiads there. 

I do not intend to deal any further with Portu- 
guese intercourse with China, as it ceased to have 
any importance fully two centuries ago.' 

The only other point to be noted during the six- 

^ For the history of the Portuguese in China consult A7i Historical 
Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China, by Sir Andrew Ljungsted 
(Boston, 1836). 



Early Intercourse 



39 



teenth century is the despatch to China in 1567 of 
two Russian envoys to the Emperor Lung-king. 
The envoys failed to see the emperor, as they had 
not provided themselves with presents. 

From the beginning of the seventeenth century 
onward it is more convenient to deal with Chinese 
intercourse with Europe, the United States, and 
Japan in chapters devoted to the intercourse of 
China with each Power separately, leaving to the 
last a summai*y of the conflicting interests and am- 
bitions of the Powers in China to-day. 



'»«»•>.' 



Chapter III. 
THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA. 

The definitive treaty of peace, under the terms 
of which Great Britain recognised the indepen- 
dence of the United States of America, was signed 
on Sept. 3, 1783; and five months later, on the 
22d of February, 1784, the first American ship to 
make the China voyage left New York Harbour. 
This vessel was the Empress of India, owned by 
a company of New York and Philadelphia mer- 
chants, and commanded by John Green, Esq. 

For a narrative of the voyage, as well as of two 
others to Canton, and for much interesting matter 
in regard to the early Chinese trade, we are in- 
debted to the journals of Major Samuel Shaw,' 
at one time aide-de-camp to General Knox, who 
went out on the Empress of China as supercargo, 
and was subsequently, in 1785, appointed the first 
American consul in China, " without being entitled 
to receive any salary, fees, or emoluments whatso- 
ever." 

The Empress of China arrived at Whampoa, 
fourteen miles below Canton, on the 28th of Au- 
gust, 1 784 ; and the American flag was unfurled for 
the first time in a Chinese port. 

The trade of which the Empress of India was 
the pioneer soon grew to considerable dimensions ; 
and by the year 181 9, or, as it was then measured, 

* 73^1? Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, the First American Consul at 
Canton. With a Life of the Author by Josiah Quincy. Boston, 1847. 



United States and China 41 

the season of i8 18-19, the value of imports into 
China in American vessels was ^9,876,208. 

The conditions under which foreign trade was 
permitted at Canton in the early days were pecul- 
iar. The Emperor of China appointed ten or 
twelve merchants, — known locally as the " Hong 
Merchants " or the " Co Hong," — who alone were 
permitted to trade with the foreigners. These 
men were the medium through which the govern- 
ment collected the customs duties ; and they were, 
in addition, held responsible for the good conduct 
of the foreign traders. An arrangement which 
appeared very favourable to the foreign trader 
was a kind of insurance fund called the " Consoo 
fund," which was raised by imposing a small im- 
port duty on all imports in excess of the ordi- 
nary tariff. This fund was devoted, in theory, to 
paying off to all foreign creditors, without dis- 
tinction, the debts of any Hong merchant who 
might become bankrupt ; but, in practice, the fund 
was called on to furnish lubrication for a number 
of ofificials, birthday presents for the Emperor, and 
so forth. 

In 1842 the war between England and China 
which had arisen through disputes in regard to 
the opium trade was terminated by the Treaty of 
Nanking; and the five ports of Canton, Amoy, 
Fuhchau, Ningpo, and Shanghai were opened to 
foreign trade. As this promised considerable com- 
merce for the United States, President Tyler deter- 
mined to send out an embassy to China for the 



42 China and the Powers 

purpose of negotiating a treaty of friendship, 
amity, and commerce. The first reference to 
China in the United States Statutes at Large is 
one — dated March 3, 1843 — appropriating ^40,- 
000 " to enable the President to establish the future 
commercial relations between the United States 
and the Chinese Empire on terms of national 
equal reciprocity." It was provided in this statute 
(No. 3, chap. 90, United States Statutes at Large^ 
vol. 5, p. 624) that no one should be appointed to the 
China mission except by the advice and counsel of 
the Senate, and that no one person should receive 
a greater salary than ^9,000, exclusive of outfit. 
The post of envoy was offered to Mr. Edward 
Everett, at that time Minister to the Court of 
St. James; and, on his declining it, Mr. Caleb 
Cushing was appointed. His instructions ' were 
to proceed to Peking, and deliver the following 
letter to the Emperor Taukwang : — 

I, John Tyler, President of the United States of America [here follows 
a list of the States], send you this letter of peace and friendship signed by 
my own hand. 

I hope your health is good. China is a great empire, extending over a 
great part of the world. The Chinese are numerous. You have millions 
and millions of subjects. The twenty-six United States are as large as 
China, though our people are not so numerous. The rising sun looks 
upon the great mountains and great rivers of China. When he sets, he 
looks upon rivers and mountains equally large in the United States. Our 
territories extend from one great ocean to the other ; and on the West we 
are divided from your dominions only by the sea. Leaving the mouth of 

* C. W. Cushing's full instructions, together with a letter from Daniel 
Webster in regard to his mission, are to be found in Senate Executive 
Documents, Twenty-eighth Congress, Second Session, No. 138 in vol. 8, 
1844-45- 



United States and China 43 

one of our great rivers, and going constantly towards the setting sun, we 
sail to Japan and to the Yellow Sea. 

Now my words are that the governments of two such great countries 
should be at peace. It is proper and according to the will of Heaven that 
they should respect each other and act wisely. I therefore send to your 
court Caleb Gushing, one of the wise and learned men of this country. 
On his first arrival in China he will inquire for your health. He has strict 
orders to go to your great city of Peking, and there to deliver this letter. 
He will have with him secretaries and interpreters. 

The Chinese love to trade with our people, and to sell them tea and 
silk, for which our people pay silver and sometimes other articles. But, if 
the Chinese and the Americans will trade, there shall be rules, so that they 
shall not break your laws or our laws. Our minister, Caleb Cushing, is 
authorised to make a treaty to regulate trade. Let it be just. Let there 
be no unfair advantage on either side. Let the people trade not only at 
Canton, but also at Amoy, Ningpo, Shanghai, Fuhchau, and all such other 
places as may offer profitable exchanges both to China and the United 
States, provided they do not break your laws nor our laws. We shall not 
take the part of evil-doers. We shall not uphold them that break your 
laws. Therefore, we doubt not that you will be pleased that our messen- 
ger of peace, with this letter in his hand, shall come to Peking, and there 
deliver it ; and that your great officers will by your order make a treaty 
with him to regulate affairs of trade, so that nothing may happen to dis- 
turb the peace between China and America. Let the treaty be signed by 
your own imperial hand. It shall be signed by mine, by the authority of 
our great council, the Senate. 

And so may your health be good, and may peace reign. 

Written at Washington this twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and forty-three. Your good friend. 



On his arrival in China, Mr. Cushing learned 
that there was no hope of his being received by the 
emperor, as he had not come in the character of a 
tribute-bearer; and he confined himself, therefore, 
to negotiating the treaty of Wanghia, the first 
American treaty with China, which was signed by 
Mr. Caleb Cushing and by Kiying, the Chinese 
Imperial Commissioner, on July 3, 1844. 

The Treaty of Wanghia consisted of a preamble 



44 



China and the Powers 



and thirty-four articles, to which was appended a 
tariff of duties. Briefly, the arrangements under 
the treaty were these : — 

(i) Americans were to be free to trade at the five 
treaty ports opened by Great Britain. They were 
to be given all privileges which might be from time 
to time granted to the subjects of other nations. 

(2) Citizens of the United States were to be free 
to reside on shore at the treaty ports, and to build 
places of business, residences, hospitals, churches, 
and to lay out cemeteries ; but these locations were 
to be fixed by mutual agreement between the 
Chinese and American authorities, and no for- 
eigner was to be permitted to travel beyond the 
treaty limits. 

(3) Protection for the persons and property of 
American citizens was to be furnished by the local 
authorities. 

(4) Americans were not to be subject to Chinese 
jurisdiction for any crime committed in China, but 
were to be tried and punished after conviction by 
the consul or such other public functionary as the 
United States might appoint. 

(5) Communications between the superior au- 
thorities of the United States and China were to 
be conducted on a basis of equality in the form of 
mutual communications [chau hwui)\ communica- 
tions between inferior ofHcers were to have the 
same form ; inferior ofificers of one nation address- 
ing superior officers of the other were to do so in 
the form of memorials {shin chin)\ private indi- 



United States and China 



45 



viduals, in addressing superior officers, were to 
employ the style of petition {pin eking). In no 
case were terms or styles to be suffered which 
might be offensive to either party.' 

(6) Notwithstanding the general rule to the 
contrary, any citizen of the United States who 
should be detected in conducting a contraband 
trade or a trade in opium should be subject to 
punishment by the Chinese authorities. 

The effect of the treaty of Wanghia was to 
stimulate the export trade from the United States 
to China in a remarkable manner, the value of such 
exports rising from $469,000 in 1840 to $2,079,341 
in 1845. 

Up to 1844, in which year Mr. Caleb Cushing 
went out to China as the first envoy of the United 
States to Peking, the relations between the two 
countries were confined to the interchange of 
products. The principal imports into the United 
States from China were tea. China-ware, nankins, 
and silks : the principal exports from the United 
States to China were American cotton goods, lead, 
ginseng, specie, and bills of credit on London.'' 
The growth of the American trade with China 
is shown in the following table which gives the 
value of imports from and exports to China at five- 
year intervals from 1825 to 1900: — 

' In Chinese official documents it was customary to speak of foreigners 
as "barbarians," and a foreign ambassador was described as "the bar- 
barian eye." 

^ Remarks on China and the China Trade, by R, B. Forbes. Boston, 



46 China and the Powers 

Imparts into Exports of domestic 

the United States produce of United 
from China. States to China. 

1825 ^7.533."5 ^160,059 

1830 3.858,141 156,759 

1835 . 5,987,187 335,868 

1840 6,640,829 469,186 

1845 7,285,914 2,079,341 

1850 6,593,462 1,485,961 

1855 11,048,726 1,533,057 

i860 13,566,581 7,170,784 

1865 5,130,643 6,502,898 

1870 14,628,487 6,421,163 

1875 13,480,440 1,465,934^ 

1880 21,769,618 1,101,315 

1S85 "• 16,292,169 6,395,178 

1S90 16,260,471 2,943,790 

1S95 20,545,829 3,602,741 

1900 26,896,117 15,258,748 

Treaty relations once established and trade be- 
tween the United States and China increasing by 
leaps and bounds, a great many practical questions 
arose regarding the intercourse of the foreign com- 
munity with the natives. One important matter to 
be settled was the status of the United States con- 
suls. By the treaty of Wanghia the United States 
had secured the right of administering justice to its 
own citizens in China. The consulates had been 
placed on a satisfactory basis by the act of March 
i» 1855 ;^ but the details of the consular jurisdiction 
were difficult to arrange, and President Pierce in 
1856 and President Buchanan in 1857 transmitted 
messages to Congress on the subject.^ 

^ Up to and including 1875 the exports to China include specie. 
' United States Statutes at Large, vol. 10, pp. 619-621. 
^Senate Exec. Docs., No. 32, 34th Cong., ist Sess., vol. 10 ; House Exec. 
Docs., No. 125, 34th Cong., ist Sess., vol. 10; Senate Exec. Docs., No. 6, 



'\j{/ k 



United States and China 47 

In 1853, when the Tae-ping rebelHon was at its 
height, Mr. Robert McLane was sent out to China 
to look after American interests. His instruc- 
tions/ dated Nov. 9, 1853, were to the effect that, 
if the revolutionary party was successful, he was to 
recognise the government de facto ^ whilst, if several 
independent governments were set up, he was to 
present himself to each as the accredited repre- 
sentative of the United States. The imperial au- 
thorities had always shown themselves averse to 
direct communication with foreign envoys, and it 
soon appeared that the rebel leaders would only 
communicate with the United States commissioner 
on their own terms. On May 24, 1854, Com- 
mander Franklin Buchanan, of the United States 
steamship Susquehanna^ addressed a letter to 
the commander-in-chief of the rebel forces, re- 
questing that the United States commissioner, Mr. 
McLane, be given an opportunity of entering into 
direct correspondence with the rebel leader, Tae- 
ping Wan. The reply to this letter is sufficiently 
curious to merit insertion here, as it is an evidence 
that the rebels as well as the imperialists laboured 
under singular delusions as to the status of foreign 
ambassadors. The following is the text of the 
reply from the official translation : — 

Lin and Lo, honoured with the meritorious rank of earthly magistracy, 
holding the offices of first and second ministers of state of the second 

34th Cong., 3d Sess., vol. 5; Exec. Docs., No. 9, 35th Cong., ist Sess., 
vol. I. 

^ Exec. Docs., No. 39, 36th Cong., ist Sess., vol. 11. 



48 China and the Powers 

class, promoted two degrees, send this mandatory despatch to Buchanan, 
of the United States of America, for his full information. Whereas the 
heavenly Father and the heavenly Elder Brother have greatly displayed 
their favour, and personally commanded our sovereign, the Celestial King, 
to come down and be the peaceful and true sovereign of the world, and 
have also sent the (five) kings to be assistants in the court and strong sup- 
ports in the establishment of a flourishing government: now, therefore, 
when this city, the Celestial capital, has been established and built up by 
the sovereign authority of the heavenly Father and the heavenly Elder 
Brother, it is the very time that all nations should come and pay courtly 
honours, and all the four seas advance to receive instructions. 

From you, Buchanan, there has been received a public document, in 
which a desire is expressed to come and see the Eastern King's golden face; 
but we, the ministers of state, on reading what is contained therein, find 
that you have presumed to employ terms used in correspondence between 
equals. This is not at all in conformity with what is right. 

Because our Eastern King (may he live nine thousand years !) has 
respectfully received the Celestial commands to come into the world, and 
to be the assistant of the Celestial courts in drawing together the living 
souls of all nations (therefore), you, who reside on the ocean's borders and 
are alike imbued with favours, ought to come kneeling and make memorial, 
thus conforming to the principles of true submission, so as to show your 
sincerity in coming to pay court. 

But we, the ministers of state, having examined this communication, 
have not submitted it to the golden glance of the Eastern King, lest we 
should excite the anger of the golden glance, and draw on ourselves no 
light criminality. Kindly keeping in mind, however, that you are residents 
on the ocean's borders, and have not known the rites and ceremonies of 
the Celestial court, indulgence (for the past) may be granted ; but hence- 
forth, as is right, you must conform to the established rules, and make 
respectful memorial. 

With regard to the favour of the heavenly Father and heavenly Elder 
Brother, displayed in opening and awakening your minds so as to induce 
you to come and pay court to the true sovereign and to be near to the 
Celestial capital, — all this you have obtained as a manifestation of the 
grace of the heavenly Father and heavenly Elder Brother, and it is also 
your happiness. 

The truly submissive, however, most assuredly will prepare rare, 
excellent, and precious things, and come and offer them in honour of the 
king, in this manner showing that you understand the mind of Heaven. 
Now, because the heavenly Father, the supreme Lord, the august High 
Ruler, is the only one true God, the Father of the souls of all nations 
under heaven; and Jesus, the Saviour of the world, the celestial Elder 



United States and China 



49 



Brother, is the superior Elder Brother of all nations under heaven ; and 
our sovereign, the Celestial King, is the peaceful and true sovereign of all 
nations under heaven : accordingly, therefore, all nations under heaven 
ought to reverence Heaven and obey the sovereign, knowing on whom it 
is they depend. We are indeed much afraid that you do not yet fully 
understand the things of Heaven, imagining that there are distinctions, as 
of this nation and that nation, not knowing the oneness of the true 
doctrine. Therefore we send this especial mandatory despatch. 

If you indeed respect Heaven and recognise the sovereign, then our 
Celestial court, viewing all under heaven as one family and uniting all 
nations as one body, will most assuredly regard your faithful purpose, and 
permit you year by year to bring tribute and annually come to pay court, 
so that you may become the ministers and people of the Celestial kingdom, 
forever bathing yourselves in the gracious streams of the Celestial dynasty, 
peacefully residing in your own lands, and, living quietly, enjoy great glory. 
This is the sincere desire of us, the great ministers. Quickly ought you to 
conform to, and not to oppose this mandatory despatch. 

24th day of the 4th month of the 4th year of the great peaceful Celes- 
tial dynasty. (Tuesday, May 30, 1854.) " 

In 1856 occurred the first clash of arms between 
the United States and China. On the 15th of 
November, 1856, a boat from the United States 
steamship Portsmouth was proceeding up to Can- 
ton from the anchorage, when fire was opened upon 
it from the barrier forts. At first the occupants of 
the boats beHeved that the Chinese were firing by 
mistake, and the American flag was exhibited in 
full view of the gunners. The fire, however, con- 
tinued ; and the boat was compelled to retire. 
James Armstrong, the commander-in-chief of the 
United States naval forces in the East Indian and 
China Seas, landed a body of men the next day, 
and captured the forts, from which the Chinese fled 
in confusion. He then wrote to Yeh, the imperial 

^Senate Exec. Docs., No. 22, 35th Cong., 2d Sess., vol. 8, pp. 62, 63. 



50 China and the Powers 

commissioner, demanding an explanation. His 
letter commenced, " I regret to have to notify your 
Excellency that it became my duty on the i6th 
inst. to assault and silence the works known as the 
' Barrier Forts,' on the river between Whampoa 
and Canton."' So much did this prompt act of 
reprisal impress Yeh that in the final settlement 
of affairs nothing was said by the Chinese authori- 
ties in regard to the American assault and subse- 
quent occupation of the forts. 

Mr. McLane's efforts to conduct negotiations 
came to nothing, and in 1857 M^* William B. Reed 
was appointed minister to China. On his arrival 
in the country he opened communication with Yeh, 
the imperial commissioner of Canton. At this 
time the country was in a very disturbed state; 
for, in addition to the activity of the Tae-ping 
rebels, the imperial authorities were engaged in 
hostilities with France and England. Mr. Reed 
finally succeeded in concluding a treaty on June 
18, 1858, and two conventions on Nov. 3, 1858; 
but his correspondence in regard to these up to 
the time he resigned his post and returned to the 
United States, in December, 1858, fills a volume 
of more than six hundred pages."" 

Two extracts from the communications received 
by Mr. Reed from Yeh, the imperial commis- 
sioner, may serve to show the difiiculties in the 
way of getting anything done. One can hardly 

^Senate Exec. Docs., 35th Cong., 2d Sess., vol. 9, p. 1029. 
^Ibid., No. 30, 36th Cong., ist Sess., vol. 10, 624 pp. 



United States and China 51 

read these extracts without feeHng a hope that Yeh 
himself appreciated their humour. Mr. Reed, shortly 
after his arrival, wrote to Yeh, saying that he had 
come out with the object of revising the Treaty of 
Wanghia, 1844, in which the progress of events 
had necessitated certain alterations. He referred, 
with evident satisfaction, to the fact that the treaty 
had never been broken by the United States in 
any particular. To this Yeh replied, " If the treaty 
then settled [in 1844] has proved so very satisfac- 
tory and beneficial that your Excellency can say 
that it has never been broken, then there is no 
necessity of making even these slight modifications 
in it ; and, intelligent and candid as you are, you 
must clearly see that the old regulations now in 
force require no alteration." ' In reply to this Mr, 
Reed wrote : " I thank you for the friendly senti- 
ments you express. They make me the more re- 
gret that you are unable to meet me, for I am sure 
a personal interview in which we could interchange 
opinions would convert the professed friendliness 
into some practical advantage to your countrymen 
and mine." To this the unspeakable Yeh an- 
swered : " In your communication you remark, ' I 
the more regret that you are unable to meet me,' 
etc. From this it is plainly to be perceived that 
your Excellency well understands the position of 
things, and the heartfelt regrets which you express 
have greatly tranquillised my feelings. In my pre- 
vious reply there was not a word, not a sentence, 

' Senate Exec. Docs., No. 30, 36th Cong., ist Bess., vol. 10, p. $1. 



52 China and the Powers 

which did not express my real wishes and thoughts ; 
and I have not changed since in any respect, nor 
was this professed friendliness on my part mere 
talk. Why, then, do you put so much stress on 
a transient interview, in order to render more cer- 
tain the friendly feelings therein expressed ? For 
instance, two persons who have some knowledge of 
each other may really entertain a hearty reciprocal 
liking, and look upon a letter from each other as 
good as a personal interview ; while, if their friend- 
liness is all pretence and they have no real hearty 
regard, though they should see each other continu- 
ally, what avails it if their feelings are estranged as 
they look one another in the face ? " ' 

However, after almost endless discussions, — 
which would no doubt have proved fruitless, had 
not the French and English forces compelled the 
imperial authorities to realise their position, — a 
new treaty between the United States and China 
was signed at Tientsin on June i8, 1858.'' The 
treaty consisted of a preamble and thirty articles. 
As far as the interests of the United States were 
concerned, the treaty was a considerable advance 
on the treaty of 1844. The main points of differ- 
ence to be noted are that the United States minis- 
ter secured the right to communicate, on terms of 
equality, with the Chinese Privy Council and with 
certain high officials, and the right to visit Peking ; 
whilst American missionaries were recognised in 

^Senate Exec. Docs., No. 30, 36th Cong., ist Sess., vol. 10, p. 57. 
^ United States Statutes at Large, vol. 12, pp. 1023-1030. 



United States and China 53 

Article 29, in the following terms : " The principles 
of the Christian religion, as professed by the Prot- 
estant and Roman Catholic churches, are recog- 
nised as teaching men to be good, and to do to 
others as they would have others do to them. 
Hereafter those who quietly profess and teach 
these doctrines shall not be harassed or perse- 
cuted on account of their faith. Any person, 
whether citizen of the United States or Chinese 
convert, who, according to their tenets, peaceably 
teach and preach the principles of Christianity, 
shall in no case be interfered with or molested." 

In addition to the treaty of 1858, two conven- 
tions were signed between the United States and 
China in that year. The first related entirely to 
the regulation of trade, and was concluded at 
Shanghai on Nov. 8, 1858. The necessity for 
this convention arose from the fact that, by the 
treaty of 1858 (concluded June 18), it had been 
stipulated that the tariff of duties to be paid by 
American citizens should be the same as arranged 
by the treaty of Wanghia (1844), except so far as 
it might be modified by subsequent treaties with 
other Powers, and that in no case should the duties 
on American goods be higher than those levied on 
the goods of other nations. The recently con- 
cluded treaties with England and France, which 
terminated the war of 1856, had effected changes 
to which the assent of the United States govern- 
ment was desired ; and concurrently a new tariff 
of duties was made, which superseded the tariff an- 



54 China and the Powers 

nexed to the treaty of Wanghia, and perpetuated 
by the treaty of Tientsin.' 

The other convention with the United States 
was signed on the same day, Nov. 8, 1858, and 
gave effect to arrangements which had been en- 
tered into by Mr. Reed with the Chinese commis- 
sioners who signed the treaty of Tientsin in June, 
1858, relating to the claims of American citizens 
against the Chinese government. 

These claims, for the most part, arose through 
the action of Yeh, imperial commissioner and 
governor-general of Canton, who on the night of 
Dec. 14, 1856, wantonly destroyed all the foreign 
factories at Canton by fire. The claims were ex- 
amined by Charles W. Bradley and Oliver E. 
Roberts, who were appointed commissioners for 
the purpose by President Buchanan. They re- 
duced the claims from $1,185,821 to $414,187, the 
amount finally paid to claimants being $492,734.^ 

The next step in the intercourse between the 
two countries carries us to the United States, 
where the centre of interest in regard to Chinese 
affairs remained for a number of years. In 1868 
Mr. Anson Burlingame, who was minister of the 
United States to China, resigned his post and ac- 
cepted a position under the Chinese government 
as envoy to the Powers,^ vested with authority to 

' United States Statutes at Large, vol. 12, pp. 1069-1080. 

^ Message of President Andrew Johnson, Feb. 18, 1868, transmitting 
information in regard to the execution of the convention of 1S58 with 
China for the settlement of claims. House Exec. Docs., No. 29, 40th 
Cong., 3d Sess., vol. 8, 212 pp. 

^Senate Exec. Docs., No. 20, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., vol. I. 



United States and China 



55 



visit the United States and Europe, and to nego- 
tiate treaties. He arrived in Washington in the 
summer of 1868, and on June 18 of that year con- 
cluded with the United States a treaty containing 
supplementary articles to the treaty of 1858. This 
supplementary treaty is generally referred to as the 
" Burlingame treaty." 

The treaty was important in many respects. Of 
the eight articles in the treaty, three only need be 
here noticed. By Article 3 the Emperor of China 
secured the right to appoint consuls at ports of the 
United States, who should enjoy the same privi- 
leges as those enjoyed by the consuls of Great Brit- 
ain and Russia, in the United States. Articles 5 
and 6 I quote, for it was in these articles that the 
United States formally recognised the right of the 
Chinese to enter the United States and reside 
there. 

Article 5. " The United States of America and 
the Emperor of China cordially recognise the inhe- 
rent and inalienable right of man to change his 
home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage 
of the free migration and emigration of their citi- 
zens and subjects, respectively, from the one coun- 
try to the other for purposes of curiosity, of trade, 
or as permanent residents." . . . 

Article 6. " Citizens of the United States visit- 
ing or residing in China shall enjoy the same privi- 
leges, immunities, or exemptions in respect to travel 
or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citi- 
zens of the most favoured nation. And, recipro- 



56 China and the Powers 

cally, Chinese subjects visiting or residing in the 
United States shall enjoy the same privileges, im- 
munities, and exemptions in respect to travel or 
residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens 
or subjects of the most favoured nation." ' 

From this point we may date the problem of 
Chinese emigration to the United States. Before 
proceeding to a discussion of this question, it may 
be as well if we have before us a few figures relating 
to the subject. 

NUMBER OF CHINESE IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Year. Nutnber in Total Ninnher in 

California. United States. 

1848 3 3 

1849 54 54 

1850 789 789 

1851 4.025 4,025 

1852 18,040 18,040^ 

1853 34.933 34,893' 

i860 49.277 63,199 

1870 75.132 105,465 

1880 72,472 107,475 

The acceptance by the Senate of the Burlingame 
treaty, with its provisions encouraging Chinese 
immigration, is sufficient proof that in 1868 no 
general feeling against the Chinese existed in the 
country. Indeed, the very opposite was the case ; 
for in 1862 there was presented to the California 
legislature a report from a select committee on 

' United States Statutes at Large, vol. i6, pp. 739—741. 
1 ' ^,Up to and including 1852, the figures are taken from H. H. Bancroft's 
j History of the Pacific States of North America, vol. xix., p. 336. 

3 jTj-om i860 on, the figures are taken from the United States Census 
Returns. 



? '^l 



United States and China 57 

the Chinese population of the State of California/ 
in which the following references to the Chinese 
occur: "a class of foreigners so peaceful, indus- 
trious, and useful," "a portion of Chinese with 
white labor would add incalculably to the resources 
of the State in this particular branch [grape cult- 
ure]. It would also diminish drunkenness and con- 
sequent pauperism, thereby greatly diminishing 
crime and misery." " It is charged that the Chi- 
nese demoralise the whites. We cannot find any 
ground for the allegation. . . . They work for us : 
they help us build up our State by contributing 
largely to our taxes, to our shipping, farming, and 
mechanical interests, without, to any extent, enter- 
ing these departments as competitors." " Instead 
of driving them out of the State, bounties might 
be offered them to cultivate tea, rice, etc." 

From about 1870 there grew up an intense hos- 
tility to Chinamen on the Pacific Slope. This 
hostility found its expression in many forms. The 
Chinaman in California was heavily taxed. In the 
debates of the legislature he figured as an embod- 
iment of all the crimes and vices. Those who sin- 
cerely believed him to be a menace to the State 
were scarcely outdone in their eloquence by those 
who found abuse of the Chinaman, in season and 
out of season, good electioneering in a State where 
the white labourer was a voter and the Chinese 
labourer was not. 

' Report 23, in Appendix to Journals of the Senate and Assembly of 
the Legislature of the State of California, 1 862. 



58 China and the Powers 

Without doubt there were many people who held 
the honest conviction that the existence of the 
State, if not of the whole country, was imperilled 
by the presence of the Chinese and by the prospect 
that, in the absence of restrictions, an enormous 
flow of Mongolians would set in. The objections 
urged against the Chinese were, in the main, that 
they were willing to work for wages the acceptance 
of which by a white man would involve a serious 
lowering of the standard of living ; that the savings 
of the Chinamen, instead of remaining in the 
country as part of its general wealth, were exported 
to China; that the Chinese were immoral in their 
habits ; that they had no respect for an oath ; that 
they were not assimilable, and formed an indiges- 
tible mass in the body politic; that they were 
largely drawn from the criminal classes ; that they 
did not contribute to the support of the State; that 
the greater number of them were, in reality, slaves 
owned by the Chinese companies in San Francisco ; 
and that there was no hope that they would ever 
become Americanised. 

It is impossible to go over the very large official 
and unofficial literature of the subject without 
reaching the conclusion that the anti-Chinese state- 
ments are marked by a very strong tendency towards 
exaggeration. As an example of the unreasonable- 
ness of the alarmists, it may be recalled that a writer 
in the Forum in 1888 laid it as an offence at the 
door of the Chinese that their industry had enhanced 
the value of land in California. The form of argu- 



United States and China 59 

ment was that the value of land had increased so 
much through the employment of Chinese labour 
that land owners were no longer willing to sell out 
to small farmers : hence, if the Chinaman had not 
worked on the land, the owners thereof would have 
been glad to sell, white men would then have 
bought the land in small lots, and the State would 
have been saved/ 

On behalf of the Chinaman it was urged that the 
fault of the low wage lay not in the Chinaman who 
accepted, but in the employer who offered it. No 
Chinaman had been known to refuse a high wage 
if he could get it. One ingenious Chinaman pointed 
out that, if the estimate made by the California 
legislature — that in a given year the Chinese in 
California had sent out of the country ^180,000,000 
— were correct, it showed that each Chinaman had 
earned at least $1,250, and inquired what became 
of the cheap labour argument.'' But the strongest 
argument for the Chinaman, on other than legal 
grounds, was made by Dr. S. Wells Williams, the 
noted Chinese scholar, who had lived for many 
years in China. In an Address on Chinese Im- 
migration, delivered before the American Social 
Science Association,^ he said in part : " Out of 

» " Why the Chinese must be Excluded." Willard B. Farwell. Forum, 
October. 1888. pp. 196-203. 

^" The Chinese must Stay." Yan Phou Lee. North American Review, 
April, 1889. pp. 476-483. This estimate was based on the extreme esti- 
mate of the number of Chinese in California, and allowed ^250 per annum 
as the living expense of a Chinaman. 

'^Journal of Social Science, December, 1879, P- ^S* 



6o China and the Powers 

95,000 Chinese in California,' 198 were in State 
prison in 1877, while 347 whites were there. In 
twelve years 711 natives of Ireland were committed, 
and 750 natives of China ; but the adult Irish popu- 
lation was only 35,000, or about one-third of the 
other. In the Industrial School were 4 Chinese 
among 225 others in the year 1875. In the alms- 
house, out of 498 inmates that year, not one Chinese, 
but 197 Irish. In the hospital report for 1875, out 
of 3,918 inmates, only 11 were Chinese and 308 
Irish. In 1878, out of 3,007 admissions, 948 were 
Irish and 6 were Chinese. The arrests for drunk- 
enness in San Francisco alone for the year ending 
June 30, 1878, were 6,127, ^^^ one of whom was a 
Chinese." 

The Chinese were not without friends in the 
United States, amongst the most notable being 
General Grant, the Hon. George Frisbie Hoar 
and George F. Seward. During the course of his 
tour round the world, General Grant happened to 
touch at Georgetown, Pulo Penang, in the Malay 
Peninsula, in April, 1879. He was there presented 
with an address by the Chinese community, urging 
him to use his good offices in securing fair treat- 
ment of the Chinese in the United States. During 
his remarks in acknowledging the address. General 
Grant said that the hostility of which they com- 
plained did not represent the real sentiment of 
America, but was the work of demagogues who, in 

'It will be noticed that Dr. Williams accepted the exaggerated estimate 
of the number of the Chinese population of California current at that time. 



United States and China 6i 

that, as in other countries, pander to prejudice 
against race or nationality, and favour any measure 
of oppression that might advance their pohtical 
interests. He never doubted, and no one could 
doubt, that in the end, no matter what effect the 
agitation for the time being might have, the Ameri- 
can people would treat the Chinese with kindness 
and justice, and not deny to the free and deserving 
people of their country the asylum they offer to the 
rest of the world/ 

Senator Hoar, speaking in the Senate on March 
I, 1882, on the Exclusion Act of 1882, concluded a 
brilliant speech by saying, " As surely as the path 
in which our fathers entered a hundred years ago 
led to safety, to strength, to glory, so surely will the 
path on which we now propose ^to enter bring us to 
shame, to weakness, and to peril." "" 

But popular detestation of the Chinese was so 
strong that at length anti-Chinese riots began to 
occur in various parts of the country. These cul- 
minated in the Chinese massacre at Rock Springs, 
Wyo., on the 2d of September, 1885. An indem- 
nity of $147,748 was paid by the government in 
respect of this outrage ; ^ but the Pacific Coast was 
aroused, and Chinese riots on a greater or less 
scale became frequent. On Nov. 7, 1885, and 
again on Feb. 9, 1886, President Cleveland issued 
proclamations ordering the dispersal of rioters;"* 

^Journal of Social Science, December, 1879, p. 91. 

* Congressional Record, vol 13, part 2, pp. 151 5-1 522. 
^ United States Statutes at Large, vol. 24, p. 418. 

* Ibid., pp. 1027, 1028. 



62 China and the Powers 

but, although these energetic measures had a bene- 
ficial effect, they did not make the Chinamen more 
popular. The Chinese question in the United 
States now took on a new form. A practical ques- 
tion in regard to the welfare of the country arose, 
which required a practical solution. If all the 
arguments of the friends of the Chinese were ad- 
mitted, the fact remained that, even if the fault were 
not theirs, their presence in the country was the 
occasion of constant disturbance of the peace. 

A brief examination of the legislation in regard 
to the Chinese will serve to show how the difficulty 
was met. 

Legislation in regard to Chinese immigration 
followed very closely the course of public senti- 
ment. In 1868 the Burlingame treaty was passed, 
granting free entrance to any Chinamen who might 
wish to visit the country and also the right of per- 
manent residence. In 1880 a treaty was con- 
cluded between the United States and China,' 
under the terms of which the United States was 
secured the power of regulating, limiting, or sus- 
pending the immigration of Chinese labourers if, at 
any time, the government should be convinced that 
the presence of such labourers threatened to affect 
the interests of the country or to endanger the good 
order of any locality ; but it was expressly stipulated 
that any suspension of Chinese immigration should 
be temporary, and not final. On May 6, 1882, Con- 
gress, taking advantage of the rights secured by 

' United States Statutes at Large, vol. 22, pp. 826, 827. 



United States and China 63 

the treaty of 1880, passed "An Act to execute 
Certain Treaty Stipulations relating to Chinese."' 
This Act provided that, after the expiration of 
ninety days from the passing of the Act and for a 
period of ten years following, the coming of Chi- 
nese labourers into the United States should be sus- 
pended. The law was not to apply to Chinese 
labourers who were in the United States on Nov. 
17, 1880, or to any who might come in before the 
expiration of ninety days following the passage of 
the Act. Certificates were to be issued to all Chi- 
namen entitled to exemption, which on presenta- 
tion would procure their readmission to the coun- 
try if at any time they should leave it. 

On July 5, 1884, the Act of 1882 was re-enacted, 
with certain amendments, chiefly in regard to ques- 
tions of identification and penalties.' On Sept. 13, 
1888, an Act was passed absolutely prohibiting the 
return of any Chinese labourer to the United States 
unless he had in the country a lawful wife, child, or 
parent, or property to the value of ^1,000 or debts 
due him to a like amount.^ This Act never came 
into force, as, by the preamble, it was declared to 
take effect from the date of the ratification of the 
treaty of March 12, 1888, with China, which treaty 
was never ratified on account of the Senate mak- 
ing certain amendments in it which the Chinese 
government would not accept. 

On Oct. I, 1888, an Act was passed, supple- 

' United States Statutes at Large, vol. 22, pp. 58-61. 

^ Ibid., vol. 23, pp. 1 1 5-1 18. ^ Ibid., vol. 25, pp. 476-479. 



64 China and the Powers 

mentary to the Act of 1882, declaring that no cer- 
tificate permitting return to the United States 
should be issued in the future, and that all certifi- 
cates issued in the past were void, and that no 
Chinaman who had already left the country or 
should thereafter leave it should be allowed to 
return/ 

On May 5, 1892, Congress passed the famous 
Geary Act, — " An Act to prohibit the Coming of 
Chinese Persons into the United States." The 
provisions of this law were very strict. Previous 
exclusion laws were extended ten years from the 
passage of the Act. It was provided that any Chi- 
nese or person of Chinese descent was to be con- 
sidered as being unlawfully in the United States 
unless he could, on demand, produce affirmative 
proof of his lawful right to remain in the country; 
and any such person, convicted of being unlawfully 
in the United States, was to be imprisoned at hard 
labour for a period not exceeding one year, and then 
to be removed from the country. All Chinese 
labourers in the country at the time of the passage 
of the Act were to apply to the collector of internal 
revenue in their respective districts, within one 
year of the passage of the Act, for a certificate of 
residence ; and all Chinamen failing to do so were 
to be adjudged to be unlawfully in the United 
States, and were to be subject to the penalties at- 
tached to that condition.^ 

' United States Statutes at Large, vol. 25, p. 504. 
^ Ibid., vol. 27, pp. 25, 26. 



i 



United States and China 65 

The above Act was amended on Nov. 3, 1893. 
The terms " labourer " and " merchant " were clearly 
defined; and it was provided that each applicant 
for a certificate of residence should provide the 
proper officer with a photograph of himself, in 
duplicate.' 

On March 17, 1894, a convention was concluded 
between the United States and China regarding 
the immigration into the former country of Chinese 
labourers. By the terms of this convention it was 
provided that, for ten years from date, Chinese la- 
bourers were absolutely prohibited from entering 
the United States, except such as were registered 
prior to the signing of the treaty, and who, having 
a lawful wife, child, or parent in the United States, 
or property valued at ^1,000, or debts due to that 
amount, should return within one year of the time 
they left the country.^ 

Finally, by the joint resolution of July 7, 1898, 
providing for the annexation of Hawaii, the exclu- 
sion laws of the United States were applied to that 
island,^ 

The enforcement of the exclusion laws kept the 
courts busy, and a number of appeals were taken 
to the United States Supreme Court from time to 
time. The views of the Supreme Court in regard 
to the effect and scope of the Geary Act may be 
gathered by reference to the decision in the case 
of Fong Yue Ting, Wong Quan, and Lee Joe v. 

' United States Statutes at Large, vol. 28, pp. 7, 8. 

* Ibid., pp. 1210-1212. '^ Ibid., vol. 30, pp. 750, 751. 



66 China and the Powers 

United States (149 U. S. Reports, 689). These 
cases were appeals from the decision of the Circuit 
Court of the United States for the Southern Dis- 
trict of New York, and arose in respect of pro- 
ceedings to deport the appellants as being Chinese 
labourers unlawfully within the United States. 
After their arrest the Chinamen had instituted 
habeas corpus proceedings in the lower court. The 
judge refused to issue the writs, but granted leave 
to appeal from his decision. 

The appeal was argued before the United States 
Supreme Court on May 10, 1893; and the decision 
was delivered on the 15th of the same month. Al- 
though the case went against the appellants, the 
decision was a close one, — four to three, — the dis- 
senting judges being Chief Justice Fuller, Mr. 
Justice Brewer, and Mr. Justice Field. The de- 
cision of the Supreme Court on the law of the case 
(there was no issue of fact) included references to 
a number of similar cases, and enunciated these 
principles : that the right to expel or exclude aliens 
is inherent in every independent nation ; that the 
power of expulsion and exclusion is a political, not 
a judicial power ; that, in passing on the constitu- 
tionality of any law, the Supreme Court was not 
called on to take cognisance of treaties with for- 
eign powers, the only point for its decision being 
whether Congress framed the Act in the exercise of 
its constitutional authority ; that, the Acts restrict- 
ing Chinese immigration having been declared 
constitutional by the Supreme Court on the occa- 



United States and China 67 

sion of former appeals, it could not be held that 
any of the earlier treaties had given Chinese la- 
bourers any rights to remain in the country except 
by the license, permission, and sufferance of Con- 
gress, to be withdrawn whenever in its opinion the 
public welfare might require it. To put the matter 
in a nutshell, the decision amounted to this : that 
Congress, acting in its legislative capacity, might 
at any time deprive alien residents of any rights 
which had been granted by the same body, acting 
in its capacity as a treaty-making body, as a matter 
of agreement with a foreign government. 

The three dissenting justices based their opin- 
ions, for the most part, on these considerations: 
that, as the appellants had entered the United 
States under the terms of the treaty of 1868, they 
could not by a mere legislative Act be deprived of 
the rights secured them by the treaty; that, as 
deportation was a form of punishment, it could not 
be inflicted except after trial and conviction ; that, 
although the power to exclude foreigners had fre- 
quently been asserted, the power to expel persons 
already within the country had never been claimed ; 
that, even if such a right existed, the power could 
not be used against men to whom the privilege of 
residence had been expressly extended by treaty; 
and that the decision of the court gave an ex-post- 
facto application to the act of 1892. Mr. Justice 
Field said in his opinion : " The moment any hu- 
man being from a country at peace with us comes 
within the jurisdiction of the United States, with 



68 China and the Powers 

their consent, — and such consent will always be 
implied when not expressly withheld, and in the 
case of the Chinese labourers before us was in 
terms given them by the treaty referred to,' — he 
becomes subject to all their laws, is amenable to 
their punishment, and entitled to their protection. 
Arbitrary and despotic power can no more be 
exercised over them with reference to their persons 
and property than over the persons and property 
of native-born citizens. They differ only from citi- 
zens in that they cannot vote or hold any public 
office. As men having our common humanity, 
they are protected by all the guarantees of the 
Constitution. To hold that they are subject to 
any different law or are less protected in any par- 
ticular than other persons is, in my judgment, to 
ignore the teachings of our history, the practice of 
our government, and the language of the Consti- 
tution." 

The final adjustment of the Chinese question in 
the United States left nothing between the two 
countries but their trade. The interest of the 
United States in China from 1893 onward has 

* It should not be overlooked that, when the negotiations were entered 
into with the Chinese government which ended in the treaty of Nov. 17, 
1880 (under the terms of which the United States reserved the right to 
"regulate, limit, or suspend Chinese immigration "), the American commis- 
sioners informed the Chinese government that, " as far as those [Chinese 
labourers] are concerned who under treaty guarantee have come to the 
United States, the government recognises but one duty ; and that is to 
maintain them in the exercise of their treaty privileges against any opposi- 
tion, whether it takes the shape of popular violence or legislative enact- 
ment." Exec. Docs.f 47th Cong., ist Sess., vol. i, p. 173. 



United States and China 69 

centred round the question of the " open door," and 
the action of the country in this connection is dis- 
cussed in the chapter on " The Conflicting Inter- 
ests and Ambitions of the Powers in China." 



Chapter IV. 

ENGLAND AND CHINA. 

Queen Elizabeth was the first EngHsh monarch 
who attempted to open up direct communication 
with the Chinese Court. In 1596 she fitted out 
three ships for the China voyage, and gave the 
master, Benjamin Wood, letters to the Emperor of 
China.' The ships were lost on the voyage, and 
the project was not renewed. In 1635 four Eng- 
lish ships, under command of Captain Weddell, 
arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macao 
below Canton. This intrusion of the English be- 
came a matter of serious concern to the Portu- 
guese, whose commercial monopoly was thus 
threatened; and every effort was made to drive 
the new-comers away. The means adopted by the 
Portuguese to secure this end, and how they 
served, are set forth by Captain Weddell in his 
narrative of the voyage."* "... And the Eng- 
lish ships rode with their white ensigns on the 
poop ; but their perfidious friends, the Portugalls, 
had in all that time, since the return of the pin- 
nace, so beslandered them to the Chinese, report- 
ing them to be rogues, thieves, beggars, and what 
not, that they became very jealous of the good 
meaning of the English; insomuch that, in the 

' China, by Sir John Francis Davis, new edition (London, 1857), p. 33. 

* An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain 
to the Emperor of China, by Sir George Staunton, new edition, 2 vols. (Dub- 
lin, 1878), vol. i. pp. 7 and 8. 



England and China 71 

night time, they put forty-six of iron cast ordnance 
into the fort lying close to the brink of the river ; 
each piece between six and seven hundred weight, 
and well proportioned ; and after the end of four 
days, having, as they thought, sufficiently fortified 
themselves, they discharged divers shot, though 
without hurt, upon one of the barges passing by 
them to find out a convenient watering place. 
Herewith the whole fleet, being instantly incensed, 
did on the sudden display their bloody ensigns; 
and weighing their anchors fell up with the flood, 
and berthed themselves before the castle, from 
whence came many shot ; yet not any that touched 
so much as hull or rope ; whereupon, not being 
able to endure their bravadoes any longer, each 
ship began to play furiously upon them, with their 
broadsides ; and after two or three hours, perceiv- 
ing their cowardly fainting, the boats were landed 
with about one hundred men ; which fight oc- 
casioned them, with great distractions, instantly to 
abandon the castle and fly; the boats' crews in the 
meantime, without let, entering the same, and dis- 
playing His Majesty's colours of Great Britain upon 
the walls, having, the same night, put aboard all 
their ordnance, fired the council-house, and de- 
molished what they could." 

This was the first encounter between British and 
Chinese soldiers ; and it resulted, as each encounter 
has resulted since that time, in the granting of 
simple trading privileges previously refused to 
respectful petition 



72 China and the Powers 

For one hundred and fifty years the trade with 
China was conducted under great difficulties. At- 
tempts were made by the English East India 
Company to open intercourse at Ningpo, Fuhchau, 
and Amoy, but without success; and Canton re- 
mained the only " open " port of China, if such a 
term may be applied to a place where the trade 
could be conducted only under the most rigid and 
absurd regulations, and with but a half-dozen mer- 
chants appointed by the government for that pur- 
pose.' 

Notwithstanding the cumbersome methods of the 
port, the trade of Canton steadily grew in impor- 
tance ; and in 1 788 Colonel Cathcart was sent out 
from England as ambassador to China. His death 
on the voyage out put an end to the project, which 
was not renewed until 1792. In that year Lord 
Macartney carried a letter from George III. to 
the Emperor of China. Although he succeeded 
in obtaining an audience, and that without sub- 
mitting to the degrading ceremony of kowtow,^ 
hitherto insisted upon in interviews with the em- 
peror, the mission resulted in little real advantage 
to the interests of England in China. It was dis- 
covered, after the embassy had returned to the 

' For an account of the early methods of trade at Canton, consult 
Remarks on China and the China Trade, by R. B. Forbes. Boston, 1844. 

* For an account of the ceremonial to be observed at the Court of 
China by foreign ambassadors, see Histoire des Relations Politiques de la 
Chine avec les Puissances Occidentales. . . . Suivie du Cerhnonial observe d 
la Cour de Pe-king pour la Riception des Ambassadeurs, by G. Pauthier. 
Paris, 1859. 



England and China 73 

coast, that the banners carried before the ambas- 
sador on his way to Peking had borne the legend, 
" Tribute Bearers," — a precaution taken by the 
Chinese authorities to prevent the populace learn- 
ing that diplomatic intercourse had been opened 
with the " barbarians." ' 

The reply sent by the Emperor to George III. 
serves not only to show the utter futility of the 
first British embassy, but to convince us that, even 
in the absence of specific grievances, an attitude 
of mind so intolerable as that exhibited in the 
letter would have been sufficient to account for all 
the foreign wars in which China has engaged from 
that day to this. 

This letter, which bears the superscription, " An 
Imperial Order to the King of England," has been 
translated from the Tung-hwa Luh, or Published 
Court Record of the Manchu Dynasty, by Mr. 
E. H. Parker; and from this source I make the fol- 
lowing extracts : " So then, thou King, far away 
over many oceans, thou hast inclined thine heart 
towards civilisation, and hast made a point of des- 
patching envoys to respectfully bear a submissive 
address. . . . As to the earnest prayer in thine 
address. King, that thou mayest despatch a man 
of thine own nationality to reside at the Celestial 
Court and take the management of the commercial 
interests of thy kingdom, this is quite contrary to 

' Lord Macartney's mission is described in An Authentic Account of an 
Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, by Sir 
George Staunton. 2 vols. Dublin, 1798. 



74 



China and the Powers 



the policy of the Celestial Court, and positively can- 
not be allowed. . . . Thou art thus clearly notified 
of our pleasure, and thine envoys are hereby dis- 
missed and commanded to betake themselves by 
comfortable stages back to their country. And 
thou, King, thou shouldst do thy best to realise 
our imperial meaning, making still further efforts 
to prove thy loyalty, and forever strive to be respect- 
ful and submissive, so as to preserve to thy kingdom 
its due share of the blessings of peace." 

A further command runs : " Thou King, having 
yearned from a distance for the civilising influence, 
and having most earnestly inclined thyself towards 
improvement, hast despatched envoys to reverently 
bear with them an address and tribute, to cross the 
sea and pray for our happiness. . . . The other day 
thine envoys raised the question of thy kingdom's 
commerce, and petitioned our ministers to bring 
the matter before us. It all involves tampering 
with fixed rules, and is inexpedient to accord. 
Hitherto the barbarian ships of the different Euro- 
pean states and of thine own kingdom, coming to 
trade at the Celestial Court, have always conducted 
their trade at Macao.' The stores of goods at the 
Celestial Court are plenteously abundant. There is 
nothing but what is possessed, so that there is really 
no need for the produce of outer barbarians in 
order to balance supply and demand. However, 
as the tea, silk, and porcelain produced by the 

' For an account of Macao, see An Historical Sketch of the Portugiuse 
Settlements in China, by A. Ljungstedt. Boston, 1836. 



England and China 75 

Celestial Court are indispensable objects to the 
different States of Europe and to thy kingdom, for 
this reason we have, in our grace and commisera- 
tion, established the foreign hongs ' at Macao, in 
order that all daily needs may be duly supplied, and 
every one share in our superfluous riches. But now 
thine envoys have made considerable demands over 
and above what is provided by fixed precedent, in 
such wise as to run seriously counter to the prin- 
ciple of recognising the bounty of the Celestial 
Court to distant men, and its ministering care of 
the different barbarians. Moreover, the Celestial 
Court exercises a controlling supervision over all 
countries. . . . The boundaries of the Celestial 
Court are defined with absolute clearness, and 
never have individuals belonging to outer depen- 
dencies been allowed to infringe the frontiers or 
mix with our people in the least degree. Thus the 
desire of thy kingdom to set up a hong in the 
metropolitan city cannot, be granted. . . . As to the 
teaching of the Lord of Heaven, cultivated by thy 
kingdom, this is simply the teaching which has, up 
'to this time, been cultivated by the different nations 
of Europe. The sacred emperors and illustrious 
kings of the Celestial Court have, ever since the 
creation of the world, handed down the teachings 
which they have instituted from time to time. The 
earth's millions have a standing guide provided for 
them to follow herein, and would not befool them- 
selves with outlandish doctrines. . . . The Celestial 

' Stores or warehouses. 



76 China and the Powers 

Court holds in conciliatory possession all the States 
of the world. . . . Tremble and obey, without fur- 
ther negligence, this further command ! " ' 

In 1816 another British ^embassy was de- 
spatched to China; but audience of the Emperor 
was refused because Lord Amherst, the Ambassa- 
dor, declined to perform the kowtow, and for other 
reasons, and the embassy accomplished nothing.^ 
" Its real failure," says Dr. Williams, " was owing to 
the utter misconception of their true position by 
the Emperor and his officials, arising from their 
ignorance, pride, isolation, and mendacity, all com- 
bining to keep them so until resistless force should 
open them to meliorating influences. It was the 
last attempt of the kind ; and three alternatives only 
remained, — the resort to force to compel them to 
enter into some equitable arrangement, entire sub- 
mission to whatever they ordered, or the withdrawal 
of all trade until they proposed its resumption. 
The course of events continued the second until 
the first was resorted to, and eventuated in laying 
open the whole coast to the enterprise of Western 
nations." ^ 

In order to carry our narrative to the point where 
the British government first came into contact with 
the Chinese government in the conduct of practi- 

' " From the Emperor of China to King George III.," Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, July, 1896, p. 45. 

'^ For an account of Lord Amherst's embassy, see Journal of the Late 
Embassy to China, by Henry Ellis, Third Commissioner of the Embassy. 
Philadelphia, 18 18. 

' A History of China, by S. Wells Williams (New York, 1897), p. 107. 



England and China 77 

cal affairs, it is necessary to glance for a moment 
at the changes effected in the early part of the 
nineteenth century in the charter of the English 
East India Company, a corporation which for 
more than two centuries held the East Indian and 
China trade as a monopoly, and which up to 1834 
conducted all business transactions with the Chi- 
nese authorities. 

On July 21, 181 3, Parliament passed an "Act . . . 
for regulating the trade to and from the places with- 
in the limits of the said Company's Charter." ' By 
this Act the trade monopoly of the Company was 
abolished, except in so far as its trade with China 
was concerned, from April 10, 18 14. Ten years 
later, in 1823, the charter was renewed, the Com- 
pany still retaining the monopoly of the China 
trade.* In 1832 a Select Committee of the House 
of Commons was appointed to inquire into the af- 
fairs of the Company ; and this Committee issued 
in the same year a long report, covering about 
5,000 folio pages.3 On Aug. 28, 1833, an Act 
was passed which, whilst it continued the general 
powers of the Company until April 30, 1854 (on 
which day the Company passed out of existence), 
provided for the throwing open of the China trade 
from April 22, 1834.^* On the same day, Aug. 
28, 1833, a further Act was passed, providing for 
the regulation of the China and India trade from 

* 53 George III., cap. 155. ^4 George IV., cap. 80. 

3 The Report fills 7 vols., Nos. 8-14, of the Sessional Papers for 1831-32. 

•* 3 and 4 William IV., cap. 85. 



78 China and the Powers 

the time when it passed from the control of the 
East India Company/ By this Act, His Majesty 
was empowered to appoint three superintendents 
to reside in China and regulate British trade in that 
region. Lord Napier was appointed chief super- 
intendent, with Mr. (afterwards Sir John Francis) 
Davis and Sir George Robinson as assistants. On 
his arrival at Canton, Lord Napier attempted to 
announce his mission to the Chinese authorities; 
but they would have nothing to do with him. His 
baggage was seized, he was subjected to great in- 
dignities, and was finally compelled to retire to 
Macao, where he died on Oct. ii, 1834.^ 

Lord Napier was succeeded by Sir George Rob- 
inson, who, in turn, was replaced by Captain (after- 
wards Sir Charles) Elliot. Under the charge of 
these officials the trade of Canton prospered for a 
while, although the refusal of the mandarin to have 
any direct dealings with the British representative 
made everything very difficult and kept affairs at 
high tension. 

But trouble was ahead. From the abolition of 
the monopoly in 1834 up to the outbreak of war 
between England and China in 1840 the record is 
made up of the perpetual attempts of the foreign 
merchants to secure tolerable conditions for their 
trade and of the continual refusals of the Chinese 
authorities to consider the foreigners in any other 

* 3 and 4 William IV., cap. 93. 

^ Lord Napier's despatches and a mass of other matter relating to Chi- 
nese affairs from 1834-1839 are to be found in volume 36 of the Sessional 
Papers for 1840. 



England and China 79 

light than as barbarians. The immediate cause of 
the outbreak was the action of Lin, the Imperial 
Commissioner, who, under the pretext of investi- 
gating the opium trade known to exist at Canton 
(with the connivance and active aid of the Chinese 
authorities), imprisoned the whole foreign commu- 
nity, including Sir Charles Elliot, Her Majesty's rep- 
resentative, — a captivity which lasted six weeks. 
During their captivity the foreign merchants, acting 
under the order of Captain Elliot and under threat 
of death by the Chinese authorities, gave up all the 
opium in their possession. The whole of this, some 
20,000 chests, was destroyed by Lin. 

The insults to Her Majesty's representative and 
the outrage upon the foreign community, added to 
the constant threats of violence on the part of the 
Chinese, in some instances carried into effect, led, 
late in 1839, to the outbreak of hostilities. 

The war lasted nearly three years, and was brought 
to a close after the British troops had captured a 
number of towns and had defeated the Chinese in 
many engagements, by the treaty of Nanking, signed 
on Aug. 29, 1842, on board H. M. S. Cornwallis, 
off Nanking, by Sir Henry Pottinger, and by Keying, 
the Chinese High Commissioner, and two other 
Chinese oflScials.' 

This war has been called " the opium war " from 
the important part played by that drug in the dis- 
cussions which preceded hostilities. In addition to 

' See China during the War and since the Peace, by Sir John Francis 
Davis. 2 vols. London, 1852. 



8o 



China and the Powers 



the very large official literature of the subject/ there 
is a considerable collection of books and pamphlets 
by private individuals."* 

The plain facts appear to have been that accord- 
ing to Imperial decrees the opium trade was illegal, 
but that the local authorities at Canton encouraged 
the smuggling of the drug. It was asserted by 
credible witnesses that the Viceroy of Kwangtung, 
in which province Canton is situated, had four boats 
flying his flag engaged in the trade.^ Edicts were 
issued from time to time, condemning the use of the 
drug; but no serious efforts were made by the 
Chinese authorities to stop the smuggling until the 
drain of silver in payment for the opium so advanced 
the rate of exchange for copper cash '' that Lin was 
sent to Canton to investigate. 

The British superintendent of trade at Canton 
was undoubtedly aware of the contraband trade 
which was going on ; but he felt that, if the highest 
local authorities did not scruple to engage in the 
trade, it was not his business to interfere, the more so 
as these very authorities refused to recognise his 
official standing, in consideration of which alone he 
would have been able to restrain the merchants. 

'See Sessional Papers, 1840, vols. 7 and 36; 1841, vol. 14; 1842, vols. 
26 and 27 ; 1843, vols, i, 30, 31, and 35. 

'^See Bibliographical Appendix, China and England, — "War of 1840." 

3 Report of the Select Committee on the Trade with China, Sessional 
Papers of 1840, vol. 7, No. 359, pp. 51, 52, and 95. 

•*The usual rate was 1,000 cash to i tael silver; but the export of 
silver had raised the exchange to 16,000 to i. 



England and China 8i 

So it amounted to this ; that both sides knew the 
trade was illegal ; both sides winked at it (the Chi- 
nese officials, moreover, making a handsome income 
out of it, on the one hand by engaging in the trade, 
on the other by accepting bribes to allow others to 
do so) ; that the Chinese put themselves in the 
wrong by their disregard of their own edicts and by 
the violent and unjustifiable methods they adopted, 
when, under pressure from the Peking officials, they 
finally decided to stop the trade ; and that the Eng- 
lish were to blame, in the first instance, for being 
party to the dishonesty of the local officials, and in 
the second instance, and far more gravely, for insist- 
ing on an indemnity being paid for the opium which 
Lin had destroyed at Canton. 

But wars have to be considered, not only in re- 
gard to their causes, but also in regard to their 
effects. " There are many kinds of wars," says Von 
Ranke,' " and many degrees of heroic renown ; 
but the highest praise is due to those who, by their 
victorious arms, have opened new scenes for the 
civilisation of mankind, and overcome barbarism 
in some important portion of the world." So, 
whilst we may portion out blame for the war 
of 1840 according to our particular views, it is a 
very practical thing to observe the consequences 
of the war as far as they affected the general 
condition of the world. 

By the Treaty of Nanking, 184.2,^ and by the 

' Civi7 Wars and Monarchy in France, by Leopold von Ranke (New 
York, 1853), p. 13. 

^ Sessional Paters, 1844, vol. 51, No. 521. 



82 China and the Powers 

Supplementary Treaty of Hoomun-Chae, 1842^ 
the vexatious restrictions on foreign trade at 
Canton were removed; the Co Hong^ was abol- 
ished ; merchants were given the right to trade 
freely with all; the four ports of Amoy, Ningpo, 
Fuhchau, and Shanghai, were thrown open to 
foreign trade (England claimed no exclusive privi- 
leges); and, by securing the right of communica- 
tion on terms of equality with high Chinese officials, 
England struck the first effective blow at that ar- 
rogant and intolerable attitude towards foreigners 
by which — to quote a writer strongly opposed to 
England's general policy in China at that time 
— " the Chinese government brought upon itself 
all the evils of the opium trade and the conse- 
quent wars." 3 As far as England's actual material 
gain by the war was concerned, she obtained the 
cession of Hongkong, which she had captured 
during hostilities, and an indemnity of 1^2 1,000,000, 
of which ^6,000,000 represented the value of the 
opium destroyed by Lin. 

Although there was the usual outcry, both on 
the Continent and in the United States, about the 
iniquity of the British government in going to war 
with China, each nation hastened to claim for it- 
self the advantages secured to the world at large 
by the British victories. The United States and 

^Sessional Papers, 1844, vol. 51, No. 534. 

^ The collective title of the few Chinese merchants permitted to trade 
with foreigners. 

^British Opium Policy and its Results in India and China, by F. S. 
Turner. London, 18;' 6. 



England and China 83 

France sent out commissioners at once ; and each 
country concluded a treaty with China, securing 
to itself those privileges which, had it not been for 
the perfidious Briton, China would have certainly 
withheld for many years. Belgium, Spain, Hol- 
land, Prussia, and Portugal also took advantage of 
the new order of things to send out representatives. 

We may dismiss the question of the war by quot- 
ing two concise opinions expressed by two dis- 
tinguished Americans, John Quincy Adams, at one 
time President of the United States, and Dr. S. 
Wells Williams, one of the most learned sinologues 
of his time. Mr. Adams, in an address before the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, Nov. 22, 1841, 
on the subject of " The War between England and 
China," said : " The justice of the cause between the 
two parties, — which has the righteous cause ? You 
have perhaps been surprised to hear me answer, 
Britain. Britain has the righteous cause. But, to 
prove it, I have been obliged to show that the 
opium question is not the cause of the war. My 
demonstration is not yet complete. The cause of 
the war is the kowtow ! — the arrogant and insup- 
portable pretensions of China that she will hold 
commercial intercourse with the rest of mankind, 
not upon terms of equal reciprocity, but upon the 
insulting and degrading forms of lord and vassal." ' 

Dr. Williams, whose knowledge of Chinese affairs 
was unsurpassed by that of any man of his time 

v^j^Boston Evening Transcript, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1841. The address 
may be found in full in the Chinese Repository, vol. xi. pp. 274-289. 



\/^ 



84 China and the Powers 

sums up the war in these words : " The war, though 
eminently unjust in its cause as an opium war, . . . 
was still, as far as human sagacity can perceive, a 
wholesome infliction upon a government which 
haughtily refused all equal intercourse with other 
nations, or explanations regarding its conduct, and 
forbade its subjects having free dealings with their 
fellow-men. If, in entering upon the conflict, Eng- 
land had published to the world her declaration of 
the reasons for engaging in it, the merits of the 
case would have been better understood. If she 
had said at the outset that she commenced the 
struggle with the Emperor because he would not 
treat her subjects resorting to her shores by his 
permission with common humanity, allowing them 
no intercourse with his subjects nor access to his 
officers ; because he contemptuously discarded her 
ambassadors and consular agents, sent with friendly 
design ; because he made foolish regulations (which 
his own subjects did not observe) an occasion of 
offence against others when it suited him, and 
had despoiled them of their property by strange 
and arbitrary proceedings, weakening all confidence 
in his equity ; lastly, because he kept himself aloof 
from other sovereigns, and shut out his people from 
that intercourse with their fellow-men which was 
their privilege and right, — her character in this war 
would have ajDpeared far better." 

It may be profitable if, at this point, we have 
before us a few figures showing the growth of 
British trade with China from the signing of the 



England and China 85 

Treaty of Nanking down to the present time. As 
all sums below ^i,ooo are omitted, a calculation at 
$5 to the pound will give a close approximation in 
United States currency. 



IMPORTS FROM CHINA AND 
HONGKONG. 



In thousands of pounds sterling. 

„ f China, 
^^45 \ Hongkong, 

„ / China, 
^^50 \ Hongkong, 

„ ( China, 
'^55 I Hongkong, 

China, 
Hongkong, 



Total. 



i860 



8,746 

9.324 

11,451 



, ( China, 10,678 ) 

^^^5 j Hongkong, 773) 

_^^ (China, 9.624 1 qqoi; 

^870 I Hongkong, 281 \ 9-905 

(China 13,6551 14,810 

^^75 \ Hongkong, 1,155 ( ^' 

„„ (China, 11,834) ,7087 

1880 {Hongkong, 1,253 ( '3,o87 



„„, ( China, 8,614 ) o 

^885 I Hongkong, 968} 9,5S2 



1890 
1895 



1897 



' ■• - i 6,005 

Hongkong, 1,225 S ^ 

China, 3,343 I 4,T02 

Hongkong, 759 J 

China, 2,973 

Hongkong, 797 

China, 2,684 ) 

Hongkong, 606 \ 

China, 2,668 ) 

Hongkong, 724 \ 

( China, 3,079 

( Hongkong, 884 



3,770 
3,290 
3,392 
3.963 



EXPORTS OF DOMESTIC PRODUCE 

TO CHINA AND HONGKONG. 

In thousands of pounds sterling. 

Total. 



1845 
1850 
1855 
i860 



( China, 

I Hongkong, 



855 I 
1,539 S 
976) 
598$ 
889) 
389$ 
2,8721 



1870 
1875 



( China, 

( Hongkong, 

( China, 

I Hongkong, 

( China, . . 

j Hongkong, 2,445 J 

( China, 3,603 ) 

^^^5 \ Hongkong, 1,549 ) 

( China, 6,139 ) 

\ Hongkong, 3,408 ) 

( China, 4,928 I 

\ Hongkong, 3,600 j 

( China, 5,064 ) 

\ Hongkong, 3,778 ( 

( China, 5,187 

\ Hongkong, 3,757 

( China, 

\ Hongkong, 

( China, 

] Hongkong, 

( China, 

I Hongkong, 

( China, 

( Hongkong, 

j China, 

I Hongkong, 



1895 



1897 



j China, 

( Hongkong, 



6,609 ) 
2,528 ) 

5.257 I 
1,909 S 

6,717 I 
1,822 s 

5-142 i 

1,975 

5,044 
2,224 

7,035 
2,690 



2,394 
1,574 
1,278 

5.317 
5,152 
9.547 
8,528 
8,842 
8,944 

9,137 

7,166 

} 8,539 

[ 7,117 

\ 7,268 



9,725 



The signing of the Treaty of Nanking marked 
the commencement of a new era in China. But, 
as the impression created by the hostilities wore 
off, the Chinese showed themselves to be still 



86 China and the Powers 

bitterly opposed to intercourse with foreigners; 
and great difficulty was experienced in securing the 
performance of the treaty obligations. 

As time passed, relations between the two coun- 
tries became strained. A number of Englishmen 
were murdered near Canton ; the foreign settle- 
ment at Shanghai was attacked ; Chinese pirates 
became a serious menace to the merchant fleet; 
and the local authorities at Canton refused to open 
the city to foreigners according to the treaty 
agreement.' 

Matters came to a head at Canton on Oct. 
8, 1856, when a party of Chinamen from a 
Chinese war junk boarded a small vessel called 
the Arrow, having a British register and flying 
the British flag, and carried off the Chinese crew. 
After some correspondence with Yeh, the Imperial 
Commissioner, who refused to apologise for the 
action of his officials in hauling down the British 
flag on the Arrow, hostilities were commenced 
and a condition of local war was established. The 
British forces captured the forts surrounding Can- 
ton ; and Yeh retaliated by burning down all the 
foreign factories, by offering a bounty of thirty 

' Papers relating to the Riot at Canton, 1846, Sessional Papers, 1847, 
vol. 40, No. 808. Papers relating to the Murder of Six Englishmen in 
the Neighbourhood of Canton, Sessional Papers, 1847-48, vol. 48, No. 
930. Further Papers on the Same Subject, Sessional Papers, 1S47-48, 
vol. 48, No. 947. Correspondence respecting the Attack on the Foreign 
Settlements at Shanghai, Sessional Papers, 1854, vol. 72, No. 1792. 
Correspondence between the Foreign Office and the Commercial Association 
of Manchester relative to Outrages committed on British Subjects in 
China in 1846, 1847, and 1848, Sessional Papers, 1857 (2d Session), vol. 
43, No. 2220. 



England and China b,^ 

taels for the head of each Englishman killed or 
captured, and by attempting, through the agency 
of a local baker, to poison the whole foreign com- 
munity at Hongkong by the introduction of 
arsenic into the bread/ 

In December, 1856, a pause occurred in the hos- 
tilities; for the British admiral, Sir Michael Sey- 
mour, had sent home to England for five thousand 
troops, and until their arrival no formal invest- 
ment of Canton could be undertaken. 

The British government, moved by a desire to 
effect a permanent settlement of outstanding ques- 
tions, decided to send out with the army an am- 
bassador equipped with full powers to negotiate a 
treaty with the Peking authorities. To this im- 
portant post the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine was 
appointed in April, 1857. His instructions from 
Lord Clarendon were explicit.'' In part, they 
were as follows : — 

" If the Emperor of China should name a pleni- 
potentiary to treat with you, and negotiations 
should accordingly be entered into. Your Excel- 
lency will have to provide for the following points. 

'Papers relating to the Proceedings of Her Majesty's Naval Forces 
oXCsxiton, Sessiotial Papers, 1?)^,^ (2d Session), vol. 43, Nos. 2206, 2223, 
and 2276. Correspondence with the Chinese Commissioner Yeh, Sessional 
Papers, 1857-58, vol. 60, No. 2322. Papers connected with the Confine- 
ment of Chinese Prisoners at Hongkong, and with the Trial of a Baker 
and Others on the Charge of Poisoning, Sessional Papers, 1857, vol. 43, 
No. 155. 

•Correspondence relative to the Earl of Elgin's Special Missions to 
China and Japan, 1857-59, Sessional Papers, 1859, vol. 33, No. 2571, 
pp. 1-7. 



88 



China and the Powers 



"... For reparations of injuries to British sub- 
jects ; for the complete execution at Canton, as 
well as at the other ports, of the stipulations of the 
several treaties; compensation to British sub- 
jects and persons entitled to British protection 
for losses incurred in consequence of the late dis- 
turbances ; the assent of the Chinese govern- 
ment to the residence at Peking, or to the oc- 
casional visit to that capital, at the option of the 
British government, of a minister duly accredited 
by the Queen to the Emperor of China, and the 
recognition of the right of the British plenipoten- 
tiary and chief superintendent of trade to com- 
municate directly in writing with the high officers 
at the Chinese capital and to send his communica- 
tions by messengers of his own selection, — such 
arrangements affording the best means of insuring 
the due execution of the existing treaties, and 
of preventing future misunderstandings ; a re- 
vision of the treaties with China with a view to 
obtaining increased facilities for commerce, such as 
access to cities on the great rivers, as well as to 
Chapoo and to other ports on the coast, and also 
permission for Chinese vessels to resort to Hong- 
kong for purposes of trade from all ports of the 
Chinese Empire without distinction. 

" If the Chinese government should agree to the 
first three demands. Your Excellency will still en- 
deavour to procure, by negotiation, the last two 
points ; but, if they should refuse to enter into any 
negotiation, or should not agree to all the three 



England and China 89 

demands first specified, Your Excellency will be jus- 
tified in having recourse at once to coercive 
measures. 

" Your Excellency is so well aware of the princi- 
ples by which Her Majesty's government are act- 
uated that I need not press upon you the necessity 
of bearing in mind that Her Majesty's government 
have no desire to obtain any exclusive advantages 
for British trade in China, but are only desirous to 
share with all other nations any benefits which they 
may acquire in the first instance specifically for 
British commerce." 

Lord Elgin left England in May, 1857, and arrived 
at Singapore on June 3 of the same year. Here 
he found a letter from Lord Canning, governor- 
general of India, apprising him of the outbreak of 
the Indian mutiny, and imploring him to divert to 
Calcutta the troops intended for the China expedi- 
tion. Under these circumstances, Lord Elgin acted 
with promptitude and decision. Not only did he at 
once despatch to India such portion of the China 
Expeditionary Force as had arrived at Singapore, 
but, on reaching Hongkong and receiving there 
news of the spread of the mutiny, he gathered to- 
gether all available forces, and, abandoning for the 
time his China mission, set out for Calcutta, where 
he arrived on Aug. 8, 1857, in time to exert a most 
beneficial influence on the state of affairs in Lower 
Bengal. Lord Elgin left Calcutta again on Sept. 
3, 1857, and arrived at Hongkong on the 20th of 
the same month. On the i6th of October, Baron 



90 China and the Powers 

Gros, the French plenipotentiary (for France also 
had a score to settle with China on account of the 
murder of Pere Chapdelaine, who was tortured and 
beheaded in 1856), arrived, and, after a conference 
with Lord Elgin, took up his anchorage a few 
miles from Hongkong. 

On Dec. 12, 1857, Lord Elgin sent an ulti- 
matum to Yeh, the Imperial Commissioner,' demand- 
ing the complete execution at Canton of all treaty- 
engagements, and compensation to British subjects 
and persons entitled to British protection for losses 
incurred during the recent disturbances. Ten days 
were allowed Yeh in which to make up his mind, 
and subsequently a further delay of five days oc- 
curred. So it was not until Dec. 28, 1857, that 
the allied squadron of England and France, in view 
of the continued refusal of Yeh to come to terms, 
commenced the bombardment of Canton. The city 
was captured the following day, and Yeh was taken 
prisoner.^ 

In the mean time there had arrived at Canton 
William B. Reed, United States Minister to China, 
and Count Putiatine, the Russian Plenipotentiary. 
The object of the former was to secure a revision 
of the Treaty of Wanghia and to obtain compensa- 
tion for the losses sustained by American citizens 
when Yeh burned down the foreign hongs. Count 
Putiatine, who had been most discourteously used 
the previous year at the mouth of the Peiho, 

* Sessional Papers, 1859 {2d Session), vol. 33, No. 2571, pp. 95, and 96. 

* He was sent to Calcutta as a prisoner of State. 



England and China 91 

desired to settle a boundary dispute and to obtain 
redress for the burning and pillage of a Russian 
factory at Tarbagatae. 

The opportunity seemed favourable for joint 
action ; and accordingly the Plenipotentiaries of 
England, the United States, France, and Russia, 
forwarded notes of a similar tenor to the Imperial 
authorities." 

There was nothing in these letters which need 
have caused the slightest uneasiness in the 
minds of the Imperial authorities. The demands, 
which were couched in firm but respectful lan- 
guage, followed the general line of compensation 
for past injuries, fair trade arrangements, access to 
the high officials of the Empire, the fulfilment of 
the existing treaty pledges, and freedom of con- 
science for Christian converts. 

The tortuous workings of the Chinese system, 
as well as the utter uselessness of attempting to 
achieve any results by diplomatic representation 
alone, are clearly to be gathered from the reply 
which Lord Elgin received from Yu, the secretary 
of state at Peking.^ Lord Elgin had forwarded 
his letter to Yu through the medium of Ho, the 
Governor-General of the Two Kwang, and Chau, 
the governor of Kwang-su. 

Yu does not condescend to answer Lord Elgin's 

' The four notes are to be found in U.S. Senate Exec. Docs., No. 30, 
36th Cong., 1st Sess. The English note, pp. 134-136. The United 
States note, pp. 171-175. The French note, pp. 164-168. The Russian 
note, pp. 177-179. 

"^ Sessional Papers, 1859 (2d Session), vol.33. No. 2571, pp. 241, 242. 



92 China and the Powers 

communication, but writes to Ho and Chau : "I 
have perused the letter received, and have ac- 
quainted myself with all it relates to. . . . His 
Majesty the Emperor is magnanimous and consid- 
erate. He has been pleased, by a decree which we 
have had the honour to receive, to degrade Yeh 
from the governor-generalship of the Two Kwang 
for his mal-administration, and to despatch his 
Excellency Hwang to Kwang-Tung' as Imperial 
Commissioner in his stead, to investigate and decide 
with impartiality; and it will of course behoove 
the English minister to wait in Kwang-Tung, and 
there make his arrangements. No Imperial Com- 
missioner ever conducts business at Shanghai. 
There being a particular sphere of duty allotted 
to every official on the establishment of the Celes- 
tial Empire, and the principle that between them 
and the foreigner there is no intercourse^ being 
one ever rigidly adhered to by the servants of our 
government of China, it would not be proper for me 
to reply in person to the letter of the English min- 
ister. Let your Excellencies, therefore, transmit to 
him all that I have said above." 

It was decided, after the receipt of this communi- 
cation, that the best course for the plenipotentiaries 
was to go north to the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, where, 
within striking distance of Peking, communication 
with the Imperial authorities could be advantage- 

' The province of which Canton is the capital. 

^ Yu apparently ignored the eleventh article of the Treaty of Nanking, 
•which provided for ofHcial intercourse with the high Chinese officials. 



England and China 93 

ously reopened. In accordance with this policy 
the four ministers repaired to the mouth of the 
Peiho; and by the end of April, 1858, negotiations 
were under way once more. 

But here again every obstacle was placed by the 
Chinese authorities in the way of a definite settle- 
ment ; and, finally, after a month spent in useless 
discussion. Lord Elgin and Baron Gros decided 
that, unless they were nearer to Peking, nothing 
would come of their efforts. But, on attempting to 
pass up the river to Tientsin, the Taku forts opened 
fire on the allied squadron. The fire was returned; 
and after a few hours' fighting the forts were cap- 
tured on May 20, 1858. 

Ten days later Lord Elgin and the other pleni- 
potentiaries entered Tientsin, there to await the 
arrival of Chinese commissioners equipped with 
full power to treat. These presently appeared in 
the persons of Kweiliang and Hwashana, who were 
authorised by the Imperial authorities to hear what 
the barbarians had to say, and to conclude such 
arrangements as were necessary in the circum- 
stances. By the end of June, 1858, the four treaties 
were signed, but only after every device had been 
exhausted by the Chinese to avoid binding engage- 
ments. In general tenor the treaties were much 
the same.' The English treaty, signed at Tientsin 
on June 26, 1858, consisted of fifty-six articles, with 

' The English Treaty, British Sessional Papers, 1859, vol. 2>Zi PP- 347~3S5- 
The American Treaty, United States Statutes at Large, vol. 12, pp. 1023- 
1030. The Russian Treaty, U.S. Senate Exec. Docs., No. 30, 36th Cong., 
1st Sess., vol. 10, pp. 387-391. The French Treaty, Ibid., pp. 395-409. 



94 China and the Power§ 

a supplementary unnumbered article providing for 
the payment by China of an indemnity of four mill- 
ion taels, two million on account of losses sus- 
tained by British subjects at Canton and two mill- 
ion for the cost of the China expedition. 

By this treaty England secured the right of 
sending an ambassador to reside at Peking, and 
the reiteration of her right to communicate freely 
with high Chinese officials. The British ambassa- 
dor was henceforth to be admitted to audience 
with the Emperor of China, without being re- 
quired to perform the kowtow or any other degrad- 
ing ceremony. Christianity was recognised by 
Article 8, in these words : " The Christian religion, 
as professed by Protestants and Roman Catholics, 
inculcates the practice of virtue, and teaches man 
to do as he would be done by. Persons teaching 
it or professing it, therefore, shall alike be entitled 
to the protection of the Chinese authorities; nor 
shall any such, peaceably pursuing their calling, and 
not offending against the laws, be persecuted or 
interfered with." 

The Yang-tsze River was thrown open to foreign 
trade, as were the ports of New-Chwang, Tang- 
Chow, Tai-Wau (Formosa), Chau-Chow (Swatoa), 
and Kiung-Chow (Hainan). Finally, by Article 56, 
it was agreed that ratifications should be exchanged 
at Peking within one year from the signing of the 
treaty, June 26, 1858. 

The French and Russian treaties also provided 
for ratification at Peking within a year. 



England and China 95 

Subsequent events showed thc.t, in signing the 
treaties of 1858, China had been moved only by a 
desire to get rid of the barbarians, whatever the cost 
might be — in promises. No sooner had the min- 
isters retired from Tientsin, taking with them the 
allied army and navy, than the Chinese began to 
fortify the mouth of the Peiho against the time when 
the babarians should return to ratify their treaties 
at Peking. 

Lord Elgin returned to England early in 1859; 
and Mr. (afterwards Sir Frederick) Bruce was ap- 
pointed Envoy Extraordinary to China, charged with 
the task of carrying to Peking the ratified copy of 
the treaty of Tientsin and of receiving a copy rati- 
fied by the Emperor in return. 

From the moment he arrived in China, Mr. Bruce 
perceived that the Imperial authorities had no inten- 
tion of permitting him to go to Peking. After a 
great deal of discussion, he went, accompanied by 
M. Bourdolon (the French envoy, on a similar mis- 
sion), to the mouth of the Peiho. Here, as soon as 
he attempted to pass up to Peking, the Chinese 
forts opened fire on his vessel, and, despite the 
utmost efforts of the British sailors, compelled him 
to retire from the entrance of the river. It was on 
this occasion that the United States Commodore 
Tatnall justified his friendly assistance in towing 
boat-loads of British marines into action by the 
famous expression, " Blood is thicker than water." 

The affair at the Taku forts in 1859 has a cer- 
tain peculiar interest at the present time from the 



96 China and the Powers 

fact that the troops at the forts were ordered to rep- 
resent themselves, in the event of defeat by the 
English, as merely local militia acting without au- 
thority from Peking. Thus, if the Chinese were 
defeated, the Imperial authorities would have been 
able to disclaim responsibility. The analogy be- 
tween this instance and that of the " Boxer " troops 
in Peking is instructive. 

In view of the repulse at Taku the work of Lord 
Elgin's mission had to be done all over again. Ac- 
cordingly, Lord Elgin was again appointed Ambas- 
sador Extraordinary in behalf of England, and Baron 
Gros received a similar reappointment from the 
French government.' 

Lord Elgin and his suite arrived at Hongkong 
on June 21, i860. Here he learned that Mr. 
Bruce had delivered an ultimatum to the Chinese 
authorities, in compliance with instructions from 
Lord John Russell/ and had intimated that an early 
reply would be looked for at Shanghai. The terms 
of the ultimatum were an apology for the act of the 
troops which fired on the ships of the British em- 
bassy at Taku, the ratification without delay at 
Peking of the treaty of 1858, and the payment of 
four million taels, as stipulated in that treaty, for 
losses incurred by British subjects in Canton.^ 

* For an account of Lord Elgin's second mission, see Personal Narra- 
tive of Occurrences during Lord Elgin's Second Embassy to China, iS6o, by 
Henry Brougham Loch, Private Secretary to the Earl of Elgin. London, 
1870. 

^ Sessional Papers, i86l, vol. 66, No. 2754, pp. i and 2. 

3/3/^., pp. 32, 33, and 34. 



England and China 97 

This ultimatum was met by a flat refusal on all 
points/ 

Affairs were thus at a deadlock when Lord 
Elgin and Baron Gros arrived a second time in 
China. Without delay, therefore, the Ambassadors 
went north to the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, accompanied by 
the allied forces, naval and military. The British 
contingent, about thirteen thousand strong, was 
under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Hope 
Grant and Vice-Admiral Hope; and the French 
contingent, numbering less than nine thousand, was 
commanded by General De Montauban and Vice- 
Admiral Charner. 

Anchored once more near the mouth of the Pei- 
ho, the embassies were compelled to undergo an 
irritating correspondence with the Chinese authori- 
ties. Hang, Governor-General of the Province of 
Chih-li, whose only desire was to obtain favor at 
Court by preventing the ambassadors from pro- 
ceeding up to Tientsin, wrote to Lord Elgin, in- 
forming him that he, the Governor-General, was 
empowered by the Emperor to discuss matters and 
arrange for the ratification of the treaties. It was 
soon discovered, however, that Hang had no proper 
credentials. Foiled in this attempt, Hang wrote 
that if Lord Elgin would wait at Peh-tang (a few 
miles from the mouth of the Peiho) the Imperial 
Commissioners, Wan-tsiun and Hang-ti, would 
shortly arrive to conduct the embassy to Peking. 

In the mean time the allied forces assaulted and 

^ Sessional Papers, 1861, vol. 66, No. 2754, pp. 42, 43. 



98 China and the Powers 

captured the Taku forts. Under the influence of 
this defeat the governor-general of Chih-li asked 
Lord Elgin to proceed up the river to Tientsin, 
there to await the arrival of the Imperial Commis- 
sioners. The Peking authorities appear to have 
been much alarmed by the approach of Lord Elgin ; 
and they appointed Kweiliang as an additional 
commissioner, instructing him to proceed at once 
to Tientsin. 

Kweiliang, who, it will be remembered, was one 
of the Imperial Commissioners who signed the 
Treaty of Tientsin in 1858, wrote to Lord Elgin 
informing him of his appointment, and stating that 
he was equipped with full powers to discuss and to 
dispose of all matters of controversy. In a later 
despatch Kweiliang wrote Lord Elgin that he was 
authorised to agree to all the points raised in the 
British ultimatum, and that under these circum- 
stances the military operations of the allies should 
be suspended. 

Lord Elgin replied that he would at once cause a 
cessation of hostilities if the Imperial Commis- 
sioners would sign a Convention in accordance 
with the promises contained in their note. But, 
when it came to the point, the Commissioners 
admitted that they had no power to do so. The 
whole affair was simply a ruse to gain time. 

It would be wearisome to describe in detail the 
events which followed. As soon as the imperial 
authorities found that Kweiliang and his colleagues 
were not able to induce Lord Elgin to stay his 



England and China 99 

progress, they appointed two new commissioners, 
Tsai, Prince of I, and Muh-yin, President of the 
Board of War. The new Commissioners promised 
everything, and failed in performance as the others 
had done. At last matters were brought to a head 
by the seizure of Messrs. Parkes and Loch, with 
their escort, when they went by arrangement into 
the Chinese camp to discuss affairs with the Com- 
missioners. The whole party was captured, and 
were brutally ill-treated on the way to Peking. Of 
the twenty-six persons who were thus seized, in 
violation of a flag of truce, thirteen were either 
murdered outright or died from the effects of the 
tortures which they suffered at the hands of the 
Chinese.' 

When Lord Elgin realised what had befallen his 
messengers, he determined to push on at once to 
Peking. When he reached Pa-li-chiau, he received 
a communication from Prince Kung, brother of the 

* See Personal Nar7-atwe of Occurrences during Lord Elgin's Second Em- 
bassy to China, by Henry Brougham Loch, pp. 127-238. 

Sessional Papers, 1S61, vol. 66, No 2754, pp. 190-195, 226-244. 

" After we had all been tied, they put water on our bonds to tighten them. 
They then lifted us up, and took us into a court-yard, where we remained in 
the open for three days, exposed to the sun and cold. We had nothing to 
eat all that time. If we spoke a word or asked for water, we were beaten 
and stamped upon. They kicked us about the head with their boots. If we 
asked for something to eat, they crammed dirt down our mouths." (Evi- 
dence of Mahomed Khan, 4th Troop, Fane's Horse.) 

" Lieutenant Anderson became delirious, and remained so, with a few 
lucid intervals, until his death, which occurred on the ninth day of his im- 
prisonment. Two days before his death his nails and fingers burst from the 
tightness of the cords. Whilst he was alive, worms were generated in his 
wounds, and eat into and crawled over his body." (Evidence of Jowalla 
Sing, Duffadar, ist Troop, Fane's Horse.) 

L.ofC. 



ICX> 



China and the Powers 



Emperor, to the effect that Tsai and Muh-yin 
having failed to conduct negotiations satisfactorily, 
the Emperor had appointed him Imperial Commis- 
sioner in place of the former Commissioners. 

A brief extract from a letter addressed by Lord 
Elgin to Prince Kung will give the reader some 
idea of the condition of affairs at Peking immedi- 
ately prior to the final surrender on Oct. 19, i860: 

" The Undersigned has further to inform his 
Serene Highness that the letter of the Commander- 
in-chief, stating the terms on which the city of 
Peking would be spared, was written before he 
knew the treatment to which the British and 
French subjects, seized, in violation of a flag of 
truce, on the i8th ultimo, had been subjected, and 
when all the evidence which he possessed on this 
point was contained in the despatch of the Prince 
to the Undersigned, in which despatch the Prince 
repeatedly averred that the prisoners in question 
had suffered no mortal injury, were comfortably 
lodged, and treated with all proper attention.' 

" Information since received establishes the fact 
that at the time these words were written several 
subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, not taken in 
fight, but seized and bound while relying on the 
security that should have been afforded them by 
a flag of truce, and offering no resistance, had 
already died from the effects of the barbarous 
cruelty to which they and their companions had 

' Compare with the information sent out in regard to the besieged 
legations in July and August, 1899. 



England and China loi 

been subjected as prisoners. This flagrant mis- 
representation of the facts of the case, for which 
the Prince is himself responsible, would fully jus- 
tify the Commander-in-chief in setting at nought 
the conditions under which the gate of the city 
was surrendered into his hands ; but he is still 
desirous to spare, if possible, the lives of the com- 
mon people. 

" The Undersigned begs to remind His Serene 
Highness that, in the first communication which 
he had the honour to address to him, he informed 
him that suspension of hostilities and negotiation 
of peace would be impossible until the officers and 
subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, still missing, 
had returned. To that declaration he has con- 
stantly adhered. 

" How has this condition, which the Under- 
signed has throughout declared to be indispensable 
to the resumption of negotiations for the establish- 
ment of peace, been fulfilled by Prince Kung and 
the government which he represents ? 

"Of the total number of twenty-six British sub- 
jects, seized in defiance of honour and of the laws 
of nations, thirteen only have been restored alive, 
all of whom carry on their persons evidence, more 
or less distinctly marked, of the indignities and ill- 
treatment from which they have suffered, and thir- 
teen have been barbarously murdered, under cir- 
cumstances on which the Undersigned will not 
dwell, lest his indignation should find vent in words 
which are not suitable to a communication of this 
nature. 



I02 China and the Powers 

" Until this foul deed shall have been expiated, 
peace between Great Britain and the existing Dy- 
nasty of China is impossible. 

" The following, therefore, are the conditions the 
immediate acceptance of which will alone avert from 
it the doom impending on it : — 

" What remains of the Palace of Yuen-ming- 
yuen,' which appears to be the place at which sev- 
eral of the British captives were subjected to the 
grossest indignities, will be immediately levelled 
with the ground. This condition requires no assent 
on the part of His Highness, because it will be at 
once carried into effect by the Commander-in-chief. 

" A sum of 300,000 taels must be paid down at 
once to the officers appointed by the Undersigned 
to receive it, which sum will be appropriated at the 
discretion of Her Majesty's government to those 
who have suffered, and to the families of the mur- 
dered men. 

"The immediate signature of the Convention* 
drawn up at Tientsin. . . . 

" Elgin and Kincardine." ' 

In face of the determined attitude of the British 
and French envoys, Prince Kung finally yielded 
on all points. 

On Oct. 24, i860, in the Hall of Ceremonies 
at Peking, a Convention between Her Majesty and 

* The palace had already been partially destroyed by the allied forces. 
'^ Sessional Papers, 1861, vol. 66, No. 2754, pp. 153, 155. 
^ Ibid.., pp. 216, 218. 



England and China 103 

the Emperor of China ' was signed ; and the ratifica- 
tions of the treaty of Tientsin, 1858, were ex- 
changed. Thus ended Lord Elgin's second em- 
bassy to China.^ 

From i860 up to the end of the Chino-Japanese 
War, in 1895, Chinese foreign relations passed 
through a transitional period, marked at the begin- 
ning and at the end by an attitude of fearlessness, 
almost of contempt, on the part of the European 
Powers, but with a strong and increasing note of 
apprehension in the middle, which ran up in vig- 
orous crescendo to its highest point at the declara- 
tion of hostilities between China and Japan, and 
broke off abruptly when the issue of the conflict 
was known. 

During this period Anglo-Chinese relations, in 
so far as they were strictly such and not Anglo- 
Russo - Franco - Chinese relations, were compara- 
tively satisfactory, the Yang Chow outrage and 
the murder of Mr. Augustus Margary being the 

* Sessional Papers, 1861, vol. 69, No. 2755, pp. 20-22. 

''For English accounts of Lord Elgin's second embassy and of the 
■war of i860, consult : The Life of Sir Harry Parkes, vol. i., by Stanley 
Lane-Poole, London, 1894 ; Personal Narrative of Occurrences during 
Lord Elgin^s Second Embassy to China, i860, by Henry Brougham Loch, 
London, 1870; Narrative of the North China Campaign of i860, by Rob- 
ert Swinhoe, London, 1861 ; Narrative of the War with China in i860, 
by Lord Wolseley, London, 1862 ; Personal Narrative of Service in China, 
by Lieutenant Colonel Fisher, London, 1863 ; Sessional Papers, i860, vol. 69, 
Nos. 2695, 2618, 2587, 2606, 2641, 2677, 2685, and 2714; Sessional Papers, 

1861, vol. 66, Nos. 2754, 2755, 2777, 2832, and 2840; Sessional Papers, 

1862, vol. 63, No. 2919. The French accounts of the war and of the 
mission of Baron Gros are referred to in the chapter on "France and 
China." 



I04 China and the Powers 

only occurrences worthy of note which marred the 
intercourse between the two countries. 

The former affair, which took place in August, 
1868, was merely one of the periodical attacks on 
missionaries ; and, after a good deal of correspond- 
ence ' compensation was secured for the loss of 
property and for a few slight personal injuries. 

The Margary murder was of a more serious 
nature, and merits some notice. 

Yunnan, one of the western provinces of China, 
has a boundary with British Burmah ; and an excel- 
lent opportunity for trade thus exists in that region. 
In 1868 a mission under Major Sladen crossed the 
Burmese frontier, and reached Momien, the capital 
of Yunnan. The object of the mission was to ex- 
amine the possibilities of opening up a trade route 
and, incidentally, to make a political reconnaisance. 
At the time, however, Yunnan was in a very disturbed 
condition, as a Mohammedan faction had taken up 
arms against the Chinese authorities, and vigorous 
fighting was going on. In consequence. Major 
Sladen could get no further than Momien. 

In 1874 the revolt was terminated by the com- 
plete overthrow of the rebels, and Chinese authority 
was more firmly established than ever. The Indian 
government at once decided to send another mis- 
sion, and Colonel Horace Browne was selected to 
undertake the journey. In order to make the work 
more complete, it was arranged that Mr. Augustus 
Raymond Margary, an attache of the British em- 

^ British Sessional Papers, 1868-69, Nos. 4097-i., 4097-ix. 



England and China 105 

bassy in China, an accomplished Chinese scholar, 
should leave Shanghai and cross China to meet 
Colonel Browne's party at Bhamo, on the Irra- 
waddy, the whole mission then to return to Shang- 
hai along the route traversed by Margary on his 
outward journey. 

Margary left Shanghai on Aug. 23, 1874, and 
reached Bhamo on January 17 of the following year. 
Colonel Browne had already arrived there; and, 
after a short rest, the whole party, being provided 
with proper passports from the Chinese government, 
started out to cross China. On reaching the Bur- 
mese frontier at Nampoung, news was received that 
the Kakhyen tribe intended to dispute the passage 
of the mission. Margary offered to go on in front 
and investigate; and this he did on Feb. 19, 1875. 
He was attended only by a Chinese secretary and 
by his body servants. Two days later he was mur- 
dered, together with his attendants, by a body 
of Chinese under command of one Shouk-goon, 
nephew of a high official named Li - hsieh - t'ai. 

Colonel Browne and his party were also attacked, 
but they succeeded in fighting their way back into 
Burmah. 

This outrage became the subject of a prolonged 
discussion between the British minister and the. 
Tsungli Yamen, which was terminated only after 
Sir Thomas Wade had quitted Peking and the 
British fleet had entered the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, by the 
Convention of Chifu, signed by Sir Thomas Wade 
and by Li Hung Chang, on Sept. 13, 1876, securing 



io6 China and the Powers 

an indemnity of 200,000 taels to England and an 
apology in the form of an Imperial letter/ 

From 1876 up to the present time it is more con- 
venient to discuss Anglo-Chinese relations as part 
of the general Chinese question ; and this is done 
in the final chapter on " The Conflicting Interests 
and Ambitions of the Great Powers in China." 

Before passing to a consideration of Russo- 
Chinese relations, a few words may be said about 
the Chinese in the British colonies. 

According to circumstances, the Chinaman has 
been viewed as a curse or as a blessing in the 
British colonies. In British Guiana, in the Straits 
Settlements, and in other tropical colonies where 
the Chinaman has penetrated as a labourer, he has 
been welcomed as, on the whole, a desirable addi- 
tion to the population. In these countries his 
industry and thrift have made him conspicuous in 
a population generally idle and untrustworthy. 

But in the British non- tropical colonies the 
Chinaman has met with a reception similar to that 
accorded him in the United States. The same 
arguments for his exclusion have been applied in 
Australia and in Canada as were applied in Cali- 
fornia,^ and the results have been the same. 

' For the Margary case see : — 

A Narrative of the Two Expeditions to Western China in 1868 and 1875. 
London, 1876. By John Anderson, M.D. 

The Journey of Augustus Raymond Margary from Shanghai to Bhamo, 
and back to Manwyne. London, 1876. 

British Sessiottal Papers, i?iT 6, vol. 82, Nos. C. 1422 and C. 1605; 1877, 
vol. 88, No. C. 1832. 

* See supra, p. 58. 



England and China 107 

In Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, 
South Australia, Western Australia, New Zealand, 
and Canada, laws have been passed from time to 
time, restricting the immigration of Chinese. In 
Australia the anti-Chinese feeling was quite as vio- 
lent as in California. 

In 1887 a Chinese commission visited the Aus- 
tralian colonies, to inquire into the condition of 
Chinese subjects residing there. The Chinese 
Minister at St. James's subsequently called the 
attention of Lord Salisbury to the fact that his 
countrymen in Australia were the subjects of dis- 
criminating legislation, and were forced to pay a 
poll tax of £10, from which the subjects of other 
Powers were exempt. This he pronounced to be 
"incompatible with Her Majesty's international 
engagements." The Imperial government, how- 
ever, found that anti-Chinese feeling ran too high 
in Australia to brook any interference. Lord Car- 
rington, then governor of New South Wales, wrote 
to the Foreign Office that, " if we have no voice in 
making treaties, it seems only just that our interests 
should be considered and protected by those who 
exercise that power." The language of Sir Harry 
Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, was more 
directly to the point. On the occasion of a sub- 
sequent protest from the Chinese minister in Lon- 
don, the great Australian statesman declared, 
"neither for Her Majesty's ships of war, nor for 
Her Majesty's representative on the spot, nor for 
her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
do we intend to turn aside from our purpose." 



io8 China and the Powers 

In the British colonies, as elsewhere, the force of 
public opinion has been sufificient to compel anti- 
Chinese legislation/ 

' For a discussion of the Chinese question in the British colonies, con- 
sult: — 

Problems of Greater Britain, by Sir Charles Dilke. 

" The Chinese in the Straits of Malacca," by W. A. Pickering, Eraser's 
Magazine, October, 1876. 

" Anti-Chinese Legislation in Australasia," by Joseph Lee, Quarterly 
Journal of Economics, January, 1889. 

" Anti-Chinese Legislation in British America," by Joseph Lee, Quar- 
terly Journal of Economics, April, 1889. 

British Sessional Papers, 1888, vol. 73, No. 5448. "Correspondence re- 
lating to Chinese Immigration into the Australian Colonies, with a Return 
of Acts passed by the Legislatures of those Colonies, and of Canada and 
British Columbia, on the subject." 

1892, vol. 36, Part 5, No. 6795 ^i- " Report of the Royal Commission 
on Labour." Foreign Reports, vol. 2. "The Colonies and the Indian 
Empire." 



Chapter V. 
RUSSIA AND CHINA. 

The story of Russian intercourse with China is 
of much greater interest than the Anglo-Chinese 
narrative, and is more easily told. In dealing with 
England, we found little that could chain the atten- 
tion. Although the wars of 1840, 1857, and 1859 
represented material capable of effective treatment 
as wars, they afforded little scope either in regard 
to their origin or their results, when viewed from 
the standpoint of international policy. 

As far as the European Powers were concerned, 
these three wars were in no sense part of a definite 
policy. 

The " Opium " War, the " Arrow " War, and the 
" Ratification " War were merely isolated appeals to 
force, as a solution of specific problems, and, as 
such, give us no indication of any Chinese policy, 
real or conjectural, on the part of the British govern- 
ment. 

It is this absence of definite, or at least of ulterior 
aim which distinguishes the Chinese policy of 
England from that of Russia; for in regard to 
Russia we have a clear and declared Asiatic policy, 
which, during nearly three centuries, has remained 
fixed and constant, despite many temporary checks 
in the direct line and some absorbing diversions in 
the lesser field of Russia's European ambitions. 

The immediate ambitions of Russia in regard to 
China will be discussed in a later chapter. My 



no 



China and the Powers 



present purpose is merely to give a brief outline of 
Russo-Chinese intercourse up to within recent 
years. This subject cannot 1)e efficiently presented 
without some reference to the general course of 
Russian expansion in Asia. 

As far as the general foreign intercourse of 
Russia is concerned, the main factor has always 
been her lack of good sea-ports. Around this single 
circumstance have centred the most notable events 
of her modern history. The whole course of Euro- 
pean affairs has been moulded by the fact that 
Riga and Archangel are ice-bound for several 
months each year; and the similar condition of 
Vladivostok is one of the controlling factors in 
Asiatic politics. 

Russo-Turkish relations represent the outcome 
of Russia's desire to have a satisfactory port in 
Europe. Russo-Chinese relations reflect Russia's 
mind in the matter of an ice-free port in the 
Pacific. 

The first trans-Ural venture of Russia was under- 
staken in 1579, when Gregory Strogonof and Yer- 
jmak Timofevitch, under the authority of Ivan the 
iTerrible, penetrated into the country watered by 
ihe Tobol and the Irtish, and defeated Kutchum 
Khan, the most important nomad chief in that dis- 
trict. 

In a very few years the Russians succeeded in 
flinging a line of military posts right across country 
to the Pacific. Tobolsk was founded in 1587, 
Tomsk in 1604, Yakutsk in 1637, ^^^ Okhotsk, on 



Russia and China 



III 



the Pacific, in 1638. It was but a few years after 
the founding of Okhotsk that the Russian encroach- 
ments on China began. Peter Petrovitch, the first 
governor of Yakutsk, having heard rumours of the 
excellent lands along the banks of the Amur, sent 
an expedition in 1643, under command of one 
Poyarkoff, to explore the river. After three years' J 
absence, Poyarkoff returned to Yakutsk, having 
succeeded in tracing the Amur to its mouth. 

The next expedition into the Amur districts was 
undertaken in 1649 by a young Russian officer of 
means, named Khabaroff. While going down the 
river in barges Khabaroff' s party encountered a j 
body of Manchu cavalry occupied in collecting the I 
annual tribute for transmission to Peking. This | 
occurred in 1650, and was the first direct contact 
of Russian and Chinese forces. \ 

Khabaroff 's party soon ran short of provisions ; 
and it became necessary to construct a fort, and [ 
then despatch a strong foraging party down the ■ 
river. This was done ; but the natives took advan- 
tage of the situation, and, with the assistance of the 
Tartar general, Izinei, attacked the fort, and suc- 
ceeded in driving Khabaroff up stream again. 

By this time news had reached Russia of the 
doings in Eastern Siberia, and Tsar Alexis decided 
to occupy the Amur territory. Accordingly, he 
appointed Prince Ivan Rostovski to the command 
of an expedition, the advance-guard of which, under 
Dimitri Simoviof, reached the Amur in 1653. 
Khabaroff was found at the mouth of the Dzeya ; 



112 



China and the Powers 



and he, together with Simoviof, started at once for 
Moscow, in order to report to the Tsar, the com- 
mand of the small Russian force devolving on 
Onufrei Stepanof. 

By the time Khabaroff and his companion arrived 
in Moscow, the Tsar's plans had changed, and the 
Rostovski expedition was given up. Stepanof, left 
to himself, proceeded to annex all the territory he 
could reach, and whilst thus engaged was killed, 
with most of his men, in 1658. 

For eleven years the Amur territory was free 
from Russian intrusion. In 1669, however, one 
Tchernigovsky, a Siberian convict, collected a small 
band of his fellow-prisoners and made a successful 
dash for liberty. The little party, much reduced 
by disease, famine, and conflict, finally reached the 
Amur, and founded the town of Albazin. 

Tchernigovsky was a shrewd fellow, and realised 
that in the promotion of Russian interests on the 
Amur lay his best hope of pardon for past offences. 
Accordingly, he set about collecting tribute from 
the natives around Albazin, and forwarded the rev- 
enue periodically to Nerchinsk. The results justified 
his hopes, for the governor of Nerchinsk formally 
recognised the settlement of Albazin in 1671 ; and 
the Tsar Alexis, on learning the facts, sent a pardon 
to Tchernigovsky, together with a present of 2,000 
roubles. 

As time passed, the affairs of Eastern Siberia 
gradually came to fill a very important place in the 
minds of Russian expansionists; and in 1675 



Russia and China 113 

Nikolas Spafarik was sent from Moscow to Peking 
in order to learn the views of the Chinese authori- 
ties in regard to frontier affairs. He received the 
next best thing to positively favourable assurances ; 
that is, positively unfavourable assurances. The 
Amur districts were to be considered Chinese, and 
all rights of navigation of the Amur and of the other 
great rivers in that region were to be reserved to 
Chinese subjects. 

During the fourteen years which elapsed between 
Spafarik's mission and the signing of the treaty of 
Nerchinsk, a good deal of fighting occurred on the 
Amur. In 1685 an army of 18,000 Chinese attacked 
Albazin, and compelled the Russians to retire on 
Nerchinsk. The town was recaptured by the Rus- 
sian general, Tolbusin, in the following year, and a 
few months later was on the point of being again 
taken by the Chinese, when news reached the dis- 
trict that the Russian and Chinese governments 
were negotiating the whole question of the boun- 
dary, whereupon hostilities ceased. 

In 1685 the Tsar Alexis despatched two envoys, 
Nikifor Venukof and Ivan Fafarof, to Peking to 
announce the approaching departure from Moscow 
of an envoy extraordinary, charged with the task of 
concluding a treaty with China in regard to the 
Siberian frontier. 

This envoy extraordinary was Prince Fedor Alex- 
ievitch Golovin, a man of indifferent abilities, and 
totally unfitted for his task. He left Moscow in 
January, 1686, and, after disregarding his instruc- 



114 China and the Powers 

tions in several particulars and wasting a great deal 
of time on the way/ arrived at Nerchinsk in August, 
1689. 

Here he found himself in the presence of an over- 
powering army of Chinese, nominally the escort of 
the Chinese commissioners, Sofanlanya and Kiw 
Kijew, but in reality an army prepared to carry out 
the instructions issued by the Emperor Kanghi, to 
the effect that the commissioners were "... in 
case of necessity, to corroborate their demands with 
arms." 

It is curious to note that the negotiations preced- 
ing the treaty of Nerchinsk were conducted in 
Latin, the Chinese commissioners availing them- 
selves of the services of two Jesuit priests, Gerbillon 
and Pereira, who had been long resident in Peking. 

The conditions under which the treaty of Ner- 
chinsk was signed precluded the possibility of 
Russia securing any favourable consideration of her 
claims in the Amur district; and Golovin had to 
put up with the best terms he could get, for in the 
presence of a formidable Chinese army a resort to 
force was impossible. 

The treaty of Nerchinsk, the first treaty between 
China and a Western power, was signed on Aug. 
27, 1689. By its terms the boundaries between 
Siberia and the Chinese Empire were fixed, Russia 
agreed that the fort at Albazin should be demol- 
ished, and that all Russians living in the village 
should withdraw to Russian territory, and "every- 

« Vladimir, Russia on the Pacific, pp. 160-165. 



Russia and China 115 

thing which has occurred hitherto is to be buried 
in eternal obHvion."* 

From 1689 to 1847, the year in which Count 
Nikolas Muravieff was appointed governor-gen- 
eral of Eastern Siberia, Russia abstained from 
aggressive action on the Amur. Her policy of 
Eastward expansion was by no means checked, but 
found its sphere of activity in Central Asia, where 
the subjugation of the Khanates and of Turko- 
mania, and the wars with Persia, occupied the 
attention of Russian statesmen until the Tsar 
Nikolas made the Muravieff appointment. 

For five years Muravieff was handicapped by the 
hostility of Count Nesselrode, the Russian foreign 
minister, who was opposed to any expansion in the 
Far East. But in 185 1 the Tsar interposed his 
authority, and gave his full support to the young 
governor-general. With Nesselrode out of the way, 
Muravieff proceeded to carry out his carefully laid 
plans; and, by working in concert with Captain 
Nevelskoy, who was in command of a small Russian 
naval force in the Sea of Okhotsk, much progress 
was made. Nevelskoy founded the town of Niko- 
laiefsk on the Amur in 1850, and the next few years 
witnessed the establishment of Russian posts at De 
Castries Bay, on Lake Kizi, at Alexandrofsk, and 
at Mariinsk, — all places situated in territory ac- 
knowledging the authority of the Emperor of China. 

From the day of his appointment Muravieff had 

I An English version of the treaty is to be found on pp. 330,331, of 
Alexis Krausse's Russia in Asia. The Latin version is to be found on pp. 
343, 344, 345, of Vladimir's Russia on the Pacific. 



ii6 China and the Powers 

no doubt kept the ultimate absorption of the Amur 
districts clearly in view ; but a suitable opportunity 
of final action had not followed any of the tenta- 
tive measures adopted by him. It may therefore 
be presumed that, when the outbreak of the Cri- 
mean War prevented the departure from the Black 
Sea of the victualling fleet for Kamchatka, it was 
with feelings of satisfaction that Muravieff found 
himself compelled to despatch supplies down the 
Amur. The supply train was a sufHcient excuse 
for an armed escort, and the affair really took on 
the aspect of a reconnaissance in force. 

The expedition started from Shilinsk on May 14, 
1854, with Muravieff himself in command. The 
escort consisted of a line battalion about 800 strong, 
a sotnia of Cossacks, and some mountain artillery. 
The baggage and stores were carried in seventy- 
five barges ; and the steamer Ar£-U7i,which. Muravieff 
had had built for the expedition, completed the 
flotilla. 

After a week's journey the party reached the 
point where the old fortress of Albazin had stood. 
The occasion was a solemn one ; and Muravieff 
with his officers landed and knelt in prayer on the 
spot where the Russian pioneers had lived two 
centuries before, while the band played hymns and 
the soldiers stood by with uncovered heads. 

We are, as a rule, very intolerant of the patriotism 
or national spirit of other nations, and thus we can 
easily misapprehend and underestimate the impor- 
tance of Muravieff' s dramatic appeal at Albazin ; but 



Russia and China 117 

it was in fact the psychological moment which 
marked the beginning of a new crusade. 

From this point on fortune favoured Muravieff. 
The hostilities incident to the Crimean War spread 
to the Pacific, and the allied squadron of France and 
England attacked the Russian forts at Petropav- 
lofsk. Had it not been for the re-enforcements 
which had been despatched from Eastern Siberia by 
way of the Amur, Petropavlofsk would probably 
have fallen. As it was, the allies were repulsed with 
heavy loss; and the Russian people turned impa- 
tiently from the disasters of the Black Sea to the 
triumphs on the Pacific. 

Muravieff's Amur plans had been considered 
visionary even by his own friends in St. Petersburg ; 
but the news of the defence of Petropavlofsk soon 
convinced every one that the control of the Amur 
was an essential feature of Russia's foreign policy. 

Events now moved swiftly. The Russian gov- 
ernment, informed of the preparations which were 
going on in England and France for a Chinese 
expedition,' sent out Admiral Count Putiatin as 
minister to Peking late in 1856. Count Putiatin 
made the journey overland, and at Irkutsk met 
Muravieff, with whom he had a prolonged inter- 
view in which the question of Russian policy in the , 
Far East was exhaustively discussed. The two men | 
found that they understood one another very well, ' 
and each went about his own branch of the work 
in hand. 

I The preparations incident to the " Arrow " War of 1856, in which the 
French and English fought as allies against China. 



ii8 China and the Powers 

The fruits of their efforts are represented by the 
Convention of Aigun, signed on May i6, 1858, by 
Muravieff, and by the treaty of Tientsin, signed on 
June I, 1858, by Putiatin. By the former Russia 
secured the recognition by China of the Russian 
[ownership of the whole of the left bank of the Amur, 
, from its source to the Usuri, and of both banks from 
1 the Usuri to the sea. A few days after the signing 
of the Convention a solemn service was held, and the 
troops were paraded. On this occasion Muravieff 
said : " Comrades, I congratulate you ! We have not 
laboured in vain: the Amur now belongs to Rus- 
sia! The prayers of the Holy Orthodox Church 
and the thanks of Russia are for you ! Long life 
to Emperor Alexander II., and may the newly 
acquired country flourish under his protection! 
Hurrah ! " ' For his services on the Amur, Muravieff 
received the title Count Amurski. 

Count Putiatin, on his part, succeeded in nego- 
tiating a treaty of commerce at Tientsin on June 
13, 1858;^ but both these diplomatic feats were 
eclipsed by General Ignatieff, who extracted from 
China the Treaty of Peking, signed on July 20, i860. 

As this treaty is the very foundation-stone of 
Russia's position in regard to China, a few words 
may be said of the manner in which it was con- 
cluded. 

At the time when the treaty of Aigun was signed 

» The Convention of Aigun is to be found on pp. 346, 347, of Vladimir's 
Russia on the Pacific. 

"^The Russian treaty of Tientsin is to be found on pp. 387-391, vol. 10, 
of U.S. Senate Exec. Docs., 36th Cong., ist Sess. (1859-1860). 



Russia and China 119 

(1858) China was engaged in hostilities with Eng- 
land and France, and was thus in no position to 
thwart the Russian plans. In 1859, however, as we 
have already seen,' the Chinese had succeeded in 
driving the Ambassadors of England and France 
from the mouth of the Peiho, whither they had 
repaired in the expectation of securing the ratifica- 
tion of the treaties of 1858, Under the influence 
of this momentary triumph the Chinese authorities 
began to repent of their concessions to Russia, and 
everything possible was done to make things dis- 
agreeable for the Russian colonists on the Amur. 

This conduct on the part of the frontier mandarin 
soon set in motion an avalanche of protests to the 
Russian government from Russian subjects on the 
Amur; and, as the time seemed propitious, General 
Ignatieff was despatched as special Envoy to 
Peking, charged with the task of securing a full 
recognition of Russian claims on the Amur. 

The time and the man were well chosen ; and the 
Russian treaty of Peking will always remain a mon- 
ument to the success of continuity of policy, backed 
by discreet patience and adequate force. 

The Russian treaty of Peking^ marks the end of J 
the first stage of Russian encroachments on China. 
By the first article, Russia secured the cession of 
the whole of the left bank of the Amur and all the 
country to the east of the river Usuri, a tributary 

I See pp. 95, 96. 

^ The Russian treaty of Peking is to be found on pp. 348-359 of Vlad- 
imir's Russia on the Pacific. 



I20 China and the Powers 

of the Amur, thus entirely shutting off Manchuria 
on the north and east. By the second article 
Russia established her foothold in the Far West 
of the Chinese Empire by securing recognition of 
her territorial acquisitions in the region of lakes 
Balkash and Issik Kul. 

With the long-sought Amur territories incorpo- 
rated finally in the Russian Empire under the name 
of the Amur Province, and with the trans- Usuri dis- 
trict re-christened the Primorskaya, Russian states- 
men were free to turn their attention to pushing 
the interests of their country on the western boun- 
dary of China, leaving to Muravieff and his lieuten- 
ants the task of founding Russian settlements and 
building Russian forts in the territory secured on 
the eastern border. 

The Russian advance in Chinese Turkestan be- 
longs to an entirely different phase of Russian for- 
eign policy from the advance in the Amur districts. 
In the latter we see the desire for a good port on 
the Pacife as the underlying motive. The former 
represents merely a small and not entirely success- 
ful unit in the great scheme of Russian control of 
Central Asia, with the corollary of a port on the 
Persian Gulf. The former ambition has been par- 
tially realised by the founding of Vladivostok, which 
is free of ice for ten months in the year. The 
larger plan is still in process of achievement. Some 
idea of the steady aim and unswerving purpose of 
Russia in her Central Asian policy may be gathered 
from a consideration of the following facts. In 1703 



Russia and China 



121 



the Khan of Khiva, acting under the fear of reprisals 
for attacks on the Ural Cossacks, declared himself 
a Russian subject. In 171 7 Prince Bekovitch- 
Tcherkaski, of the Imperial Russian body-guard, 
was sent by Tsar Peter the Great to make a recon- 
naissance of the country. On Jan. 8, 1873, Count 
Schouvaloff, special Envoy of Russia, informed Earl 
Granville, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs, that the object of the 
Khivan expedition, about to be sent at that time 
from Russia, " was to punish acts of brigandage, to 
recover fifty Russian prisoners, and to teach the 
Khan that such conduct on his part could not be 
continued with the impunity in which the modera- 
tion of Russia had led him to believe. Not only 
was it far from the intention of the Emperor to take 
possession of Khiva, but positive orders had been 
prepared to prevent it, and directions given that 
the conditions imposed should be such as could 
not in any way lead to a prolonged occupancy of 
Khiva." ' 

On Aug. 24, 1873, the very year of the above 
assurances, after successful military operations, the 
Russian General, Kaufmann, concluded the treaty 
of Khiva, the third article of which runs : — 

" The whole of the right bank of the Amu Daria, 
and the lands adjoining thereunto, which have 
hitherto been considered as belonging to Khiva, 
shall pass over from the Khan into the possession 

> British Sessional Papers, 1873, vol. 75, C. 699. " Correspondence 
with Russia respecting Central Asia," pp. 12, 13. 



122 



China and the Powers 



of Russia, together with the people dwelling and 
camping thereon. Those parcels of land which 
are at present the property of the Khan, and of 
which the usufruct has been given by him to Khivan 
Officers of State, become likewise the property of 
the Russian government, free of all claims on the 
part of the previous owners." ' 

In addition to this the Khivans were called on 
to pay a war indemnity of 2,200,000 roubles. So 
much for Khiva. 

A very similar story might be told of the Kha- 
nate of Khokand, which was declared part of the 
Russian Empire on March 2, 1876, of Turkestan, 
of the Kirghiz Steppe, and of the Khanate of Bok- 
hara, which, though nominally independent, are, in 
fact, governed from St. Petersburg. 

These acquisitions, together with the absorption, 
by conquest or treaty, of Georgia (1801), Mingrelia 
{1803), Imeretia {1804), Baku and Shrivan (181 3), 
Erivan {1828), Samarkand (1868), Geok Tepe (1881), 
the Tejend Oasis (1883), and the Merv Oasis 
(1884), represent the physical expansion of Russia 
in near Asia. 

The net result is that Russia has acquired as the 
reward of her steady policy of absorption in near 
Asia : — 

Area, Population, 

Caucasus Territory 180,843 8,350,000 

Kirghiz Steppe Territory 755-793 2,000,000 

Turkestan 409414 3,341,000 

Transcaspia 383,618 352,000 

1,729,668 14,043,000^ 
I Krausse, Russia in Asia., p. 347. ^ Ibid,, p. 5. 



Russia and China 123 

The above brief outline of Russian expansion in 
Central Asia was intended merely to make more 
intelligible the action of Russia in regard to the 
Valley of the Hi by showing that there had been 
a general Russian policy of eastward expansion 
from early times, and that the Hi frontier affair 
would thus fit in with this general policy. 

The facts in relation to the Hi frontier are 
these : — 

Having secured recognition of her sovereignty 
over the Balkash and Issik Kul districts in the 
extreme west of China by the Treaty of Peking, 
Russia was placed in an excellent position to push 
her advance still further, if a suitable occasion 
should present itself. Such an occasion was not 
long delayed. In 1863 the Mohammedan popula- 
tion of Jungaria, the Chinese province having a 
frontier, with the Government of Semirechensk, as 
the Balkash and Issik Kul districts were called, 
rose against their Chinese masters, and, having de- 
feated the imperial troops, massacred all the Chinese 
in the country. Having achieved this, the rebels 
began to quarrel amongst themselves ; and, finall}^ 
a condition of affairs arose which was intolerable 
to their Russian neighbours. Accordingly, an army 
was sent across the frontier into Jungaria for the 
purpose of restoring order; and the rebels at once 
laid down their arms. 

At this stage Russia informed China of what 
had occurred, and added that, as soon as China was 
ready to take effective control of the district, it 



124 China and the Powers 

would be handed over again, as the Russians were 
there merely in the general interests of good order. 

When the time came for the Russians to retire 
to Semirechensk the officers commanding the Rus- 
sian troops found a number of good reasons why 
the evacuation could not be carried out; and the 
matter was referred to Peking. Here, also, difficul- 
ties arose; and, finally, in 1879 the Chinese gov- 
ernment despatched a mandarin, Chunghow by 
name, to St. Petersburg to arrange the details of 
the promised evacuation. 

The utmost that Chunghow was able to effect, 
after wasting a good deal of time in argument, was 
an agreement under which Russia was to restore 
part of Jungaria to China, was to retain part, and 
was further to receive 5,000,000 roubles to cover 
the expenses of her occupation of the territory. 

These terms were, however, rejected by China ; 
and the Marquis Tseng, Chinese Minister in Lon- 
don, was ordered to St. Petersburg to reopen nego- 
tiations. On this occasion Russia yielded on the 
main point, and restored the greater part of the 
Hi Valley to China. But the treaty of Hi, Feb. 12, 
1 88 1, which settled the dispute, shows that, on the 
whole, Russia secured better terms than under the 
Chunghow arrangement' 

By article I. Russia restored the country of Hi 
to the Chinese government ; but " Russia remains 

* For the treaty of Hi, see British Sessional Papers, 1882, vol. 80, 
C. 3134. "Despatch from Mr. Wyndham, Her Majesty's Charge d' Af- 
faires at St. Petersburg, enclosing copy of a Treaty between Russia and 
China, etc." 



Russia and China 125 

in possession of the western portion of that coun- 
try." By article IV. Russians who had acquired 
land in Hi during the Russian occupation were 
confirmed in their possession. By article VI. Rus- 
sia received from China 9,000,000 roubles (metallic) 
to meet the expenses of the occupation. By other 
articles, Russia acquired the right to establish sev- 
eral consulates in Western China, a number of priv- 
ileges for Russian traders, and the specific assertion 
of the right of Russians to navigate the Manchurian 
rivers, and to trade freely in that province. 

We must now turn to yet another phase of Russo- 
Chinese relations, — the Siberian Railway ; and, as 
in our previous inquiries, it is necessary to go back 
a number of years, because the actual part played 
to-day by China in regard to this great Russian 
scheme represents merely the latest result of a 
series of events in which the immediate interest of 
China is of recent origin. 

As soon as Russia had founded Okhotsk, in 1638, 
and had thus extended the chain of her authority 
from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, it 
became evident that, if the vast territory known as 
Siberia was to serve any useful purpose, the first 
requisite was good means of communication. This 
requirement appeared of the utmost importance, 
whether viewed from the standpoint of the agricult- 
ural and mineral development of the country or 
from the more remote ground of Russia's political 
ambitions in the Far East ; and the great Muravieff 
distinguished himself in nothing more than in his 



126 China and the Powers 

unceasing efforts to lessen the time occupied in 
going from the Amur to St. Petersburg. 

Up to 1843 the post-road was the only means of 
travel in Siberia. In that year a steamer was run 
on the Ob ; three years later the Constantin entered 
the Amur; and in 1863 steamers plied on the 
Yenisei. 

It was not, however, until 1857 that the first 
definite suggestion of a trans-Siberian railroad was 
made, the idea originating with an Englishman, 
named Dull, who offered to construct a horse-car 
line from Nijni-Novgorod through Kasan and Perm 
to one of the Pacific ports of Siberia. As Dull 
failed to give any idea of the cost of his proposed 
undertaking, nothing was done in the matter. The 
next suggestion came from an American, named 
Collins, whose plan, if more modest than Dull's, 
was more practical. He proposed to construct a 
short line of railway from Irkutsk, the capital of 
Eastern Siberia, to Chita, a town on the upper 
Amur. Collins's plan was rejected on two grounds, 
although it had the support of Muravieff. It was 
considered that the route of the proposed railroad 
was not sufficiently known to permit of even an 
approximate estimate of the cost of the line ; and, 
further, Collins demanded certain commercial privi- 
leges which the government was not prepared to 
grant. 

The year 1858 produced two new projects. The 
first came from three Englishmen, — Morrison, 
Horn, and Sleigh, — who offered, in exchange for 



Russia and China 127 

a virtual trade monopoly along the line, to connect 
Moscow with the Pacific without any financial 
assistance from the Russian government. The sec- 
ond offer was presented by a Russian, named Soph- 
ronoff, who wished to construct a line from Saratof, 
on the Volga, to Peking. Both these plans were 
rejected. 

The three projects which followed between 1862 
and 1869 were based on the assumption that it was 
better to get something done near home than to 
argue indefinitely about the gigantic trans-Siberian 
scheme. Accordingly, attention was turned to the 
possibility of developing the trans- Ural mining dis- 
tricts by a railway joining the Volga, in Russia, with 
the Ob, in Siberia, — a road which would pass 
through the heart of the mining country. 

The three plans — that of Kokoreff & Co. in 
1862, that of Colonel Bogdanovitch in 1866, and 
that of Linbimoff in 1869 — were similar in that 
they all started from Perm, a town on the Kama, 
one of the tributaries of the Volga. The one finally 
selected was that of Colonel Bogdanovitch, which 
had its Siberian terminus at Tiumen on the Tura, 
a tributary of the Ob. This line was commenced 
in 1875, was completed as far as Ekaterinburg in 
1878, and was open to Tiumen in 1884. 

Following the construction of the Perm-Tiumen 
line came two short lines, one joining Samara, on 
the Volga, with Miass, a small town on the eastern 
slope of the Urals, the other connecting Samara 
with Orenburg, on the Ural River. The question 



128 China and the Powers 

then resolved itself into this : If Vladivostok was to 
be connected by rail with the general Russian sys- 
tem, which of the three railroads already stretching 
to the east should be prolonged across the Asiatic 
continent ? 

The Perm-Tiumen line was easily set aside; for, 
as it was not connected with the general railroad 
system of Russia, there would be the necessity of 
building a line from Perm to Nijni-Novgorod, a dis- 
tance of about 500 miles, in order to effect this 
junction. The Samara-Slatoust-Miass line could be 
extended through Kurgan, Omsk, Kainsk, Koly- 
wan, Mariinsk, and Krassnojarsk to Nijni-Udinsk, 
some 1,800 miles. The Samara-Orenburg line could 
be carried to the same point by way of a southerly 
route, passing through Orsk, Atbassar, Akmolinsk, 
Pavlodar, Biisk, and Minusinsk, about 2,200 miles. 
The latter was open to two objections, — the addi- 
tional 400 miles to be covered, and the fact that 
between Orsk and Biisk the line would be exposed 
to drought in summer and blizzards in winter, 
while between Biisk and Nijni-Udinsk the ex- 
tremely mountainous character of the country 
would make construction very expensive. 

Accordingly, the Samara-Slatoust-Miass line was 
chosen. 

Effect was given to this decision by an Imperial 
Rescript, dated March 17, 1891 (March 29, Russian 
style). The Rescript was addressed to the Cesare- 
vitch (now Czar Nicholas II.), who was at that time 
engaged in his tour around the world. It reached 



Russia and China 129 

him at Vladivostok on May 12 (24), 1891. In part, 
it ran as follows : — 

In commanding that the continuous railway right through Siberia be 
now begun, in order to facihtate communication, I commission you to pro- 
claim this my will, on re-entering Russia, after having visited the foreign 
lands of the East. At the same time I charge you to lay the first rail in 
Vladivostok of the Usuri section of the Great Siberian Railway, which is 
now decided upon, and is to be constructed at the expense of the Imperial 
Exchequer and under the direct orders of government. 

Alexander. 

In accordance with this mandate the Cesarevitch 
turned the first sod of the Siberian Railway at 
Vladivostok on May 19, 1891. 

The details of construction do not concern us 
here. Suffice it to say that the work was divided 
into seven sections : — 

Section i. The Western Siberian line, from 
Chelabinsk to the river Ob, 880 miles. 

Section 2. The Central Siberian line, from the 
Ob to Irkutsk, 1,162^ miles. 

Section 3. The Circumbaikalian line, from Ir- 
kutsk to Mysovaya, round the southern shore of 
Lake Baikal, 194 miles. 

Section 4. The Transbaikalian line, from Myso- 
vaya to Strietensk, 669 miles. 

Section 5. The Amur line, from Strietensk to 
Khabarofsk, 1,326 miles. 

Section 6. North Usurian line, from Khabarofsk 
to Graphska, 230 miles. 

Section 7. South Usurian line, from Graphska 
to Vladivostok, 253 miles. 

Total length, 4,7143/^ miles. 



I30 China and the Powers 

Owing to the fact that Russia obtained in 1896 
permission to carry the Siberian Railway right 
through Manchuria, from Strietensk to Vladivostok, 
sections 5, 6, and 7, as given above, which repre- 
sent a long detour along the banks of the Amur 
and the Usuri, need not be utilised. The history 
of this remarkable concession by the Chinese gov- 
ernment is given in the chapter on " The Conflict- 
ing Interests and Ambitions of the Great Powers 
in China." ' 

We may understand the important bearing of the 
Siberian Railway on the question of Russian influ- 
ence on China if we consider that the distance from 
St. Petersburg to Vladivostok may be covered by 
rail, allowing an average speed of twenty-five miles 
an hour, in ten days, while it will require under 
favourable conditions thirty days to go from Lon- 
don to Vladivostok by water. 

The last rail connecting Moscow with Strietensk 
was laid on Dec. 28, 1899. From that day it became 
possible to make a through journey by rail and 
steamer from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. The 
journey from St. Petersburg to Listvinitchnoi, on 
the western shore of Lake Baikal, is made by rail. 
The lake is crossed by boat in summer and by rails 
over the ice in winter. From Myssowa (Muissov) 
on the eastern shore of the lake, to Strietensk the 

' For an account of the Siberian Railway, see Vladimir's Russia on the 
Pacific and the Siberian Railway ; Krahmer's Siberien und die grosse sibi- 
rische Eisetibahn ; and Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu's The Awakening of the East. 
For further references, see Bibliography under Russia and China, sub-title 
Siberian Railway. 



Russia and China 131 

railroad is used again ; and, from Strietensk to Kha- 
barofsk, steamers convey the passengers down the 
Shilka and the Amur. At Khabarofsk the railroad 
completes the route to Vladivostok. 

A ticket from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, with 
first-class accommodations, including board, is $125. 

This great railway, which is to cost $400,000,000, 
of which $300,000,000 has already been expended, 
will enable Russia to exert an influence at Peking 
which will seriously menace the interests of those 
nations whose progress in Asia it will be the policy 
of Russia to check. 

However we may be inclined to look with alarm 
and suspicion on Russia's every move in the Far 
East, we cannot withhold our admiration from the 
adroitness of her policy, the patriotism of her offi- 
cers, and the magnificent audacity of her purpose, 
which have combined to place her in a position in 
regard to the Far East which, were it not for the 
splendid development of Japan, would be well-nigh 
unassailable. 



COMPARATIVE TABLES 

Showing an Analysis of the Trade of China 
with Foreign Nations, 1 880-1 899, inclusive 






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Cranberry Township, PA 16065 
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